News

Last-gasp Olympiakos leave Montpellier in need of a miracle:

Olympiakos defended for 70 minutes at Karaiskaki Stadium in Piraeus but walked away with a valuable 3-1 win over Montpellier in the Champions League, thanks to goals from Paulo Machado, Leonardo Greco and Costas Mitroglou.
 The Greek champions play their two remaining games away to Schalke and then at home to Arsenal in Group B, with a shot at qualification to the knock out stages.
 Greco set up the opening goal in the 4th minute, expertly cutting through the French defence to find Djamel Abdoun in the penalty area. The Algerian struck the left post with his shot but Paulo Machado was on hand to chip past goalkeeper Geoffrey Jourden.
 Then, inexplicably, the Greeks sat back, handing Montpellier winger Younes Belhanda an invitation wreak havoc for most of the match.
 The 22-year-old Moroccan finally got the equaliser in the 66th minute, converting a penalty kick.
Croatian referee Marijo Strahonja awarded the spot kick after Soulaymane Camara fell to ground after jostling in the penalty area with Dimitris Siovas.
 "I wasn't close to the incident, but it didn't look like a penalty," Olympiakos defender Giannis Maniatis said. "It made us play more stubbornly and improve our game."
 He was right: Olympiakos sprung to life after appearing hapless for much of the game.
 The French failed to dispose of a corner from Jose Holebas in the 80th minute, and Greco blasted the ball through a crowded penalty area past Jourden to make it 2-1.
 Holebas laid on another two minutes later, his cross met by Mitroglou who had played as a stranded striker all evening before showing little hesitation when his chance came - 3-1 Olympiakos.
 "We were not afraid and players stayed strong," said Olympiakos manager Leonardo Jardim, insisting his players had stuck to their game plan and soaked up pressure from Montpellier after taking the lead.
 "We interrupted their game... I Think the victory was absolutely fair. We have six points left for the taking and we will fight for them."
 Montpellier pulled off a stunning French league win last season, but have not carried their success over to Europe, finishing the night without a Champions League win in four matches.
 "To be realistic, it would take a miracle to get third place in the group," said Montpellier coach Rene Girard. "We collapsed in the last ten minutes. It's happened to us before but I can't explain it."

News

Small majority for austerity raises big doubts:

Prime Minister Samaras applauds with lawmakers after Wednesday night's vote (Reuters)

A stormy all-day debate in parliament on Wednesday culminated in a flimsy majority of 153 MPs approving the harsh austerity package of 13.5bn euros worth of mostly wage, pension and welfare cuts in the next two years, with a further 5bn euros of cutbacks in 2015-16, as dictated by the troika of Greece’s creditors.
 “The vote’s result marks a large, decisive and encouraging step towards economic recovery and better days for the country as a whole,” said Prime Minister Antonis Samaras after the results of the vote count were announced shortly past midnight.


“We’ve sent a strong message [abroad] that Greece has turned a page,” he added.
 Parliament was besieged by tens of thousands of protesters in the afternoon while opposition lawmakers from left-wing Syriza and conservative Independent Greeks often interrupted the debate with motions of constitutional or parliamentary irregularity.
 This further undermined the 250-page, one-article bill’s legitimacy, which had already been denied by two landmark high-court rulings, one by the State Auditors’ Council on Monday and another by the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

News

‘If the euro fails…’:
AS THE government puts the final touches to its 11.5 billion euro spending cuts package, the question on the lips of many is whether this will be enough to silence an ever-growing chorus of foreign politicians and analysts foreseeing Greece’s eventual exit from the eurozone.

No matter what Greece does, the thinking goes, it will be too little, too late.

 Despite Greece’s lack of credibility, both German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande have insisted they want the country to remain in the eurozone, provided it fulfils its obligation to implement the reforms it agreed to in exchange for billions in bailouts.

Merkel also appealed to fellow German politicians to put an end to public speculation about Greece’s eurozone future. As long as “Grexit” scenarios persist, the likelihood of foreign investors pouring money into Greece will decrease.
 And without fresh investment, economic growth will not materialise in the short term, condemning the economy to an even deeper recession. Greece will remain a bottomless pit where more bailout money will be wasted, to the chagrin and frustration of its lenders, and the economy won’t recover whilst the country remains in the eurozone.

Despite growing confidence in some quarters that the damage from a Grexit could be contained, the risks of the euro unravelling still remain ominously high.

 Given the perceived hopelessness of the situation in Greece - and the economic woes of Spain and Italy - the European North must at long last decide what sort of eurozone it wants.
 If it wants to keep the single currency intact at all costs it will have no choice but to begrudgingly pick up the tab of the profligate countries of the South or else face continued uncertainty over the currency’s future. It will have to take an even bigger hit. It will also have to accept the idea - no matter how unjust - of debt mutualisation, which basically means to assume liability for the debts of other countries that have gone astray, so to speak. This, for example, could be done through eurobonds.

At the same time, the North must use all the leverage it has to force countries with runaway deficits to introduce strict fiscal rules and structural reforms.
 Merkel’s Germany has already pledged billions to save the single currency. If it turns its back now on its bankrupt partners, Merkel would have to explain a very expensive mistake.
 If Merkel’s statement this week that “if the euro fails, Europe will fail” is anything to go by, there is still hope that the single currency will survive. The billion-euro question is whether Greece can reform itself enough to remain in the same currency.

News

Piraeus will pay one million euros for Geniki

 Piraeus Bank buys Geniki:

Piraeus Bank announced on Friday it has signed an agreement with French bank Society General to buy 99.08 percent of its Greek subsidiary, Geniki Bank. 
Piraeus Bank will pay a nominal 1 million euros to buy Geniki's equity capital. Geniki's net value was 100m euros at the end of March.
For its part in the sale, Society General will invest a total of 444m euros, covering the recapitalization of Geniki Bank (281m euros) and a bond issue of Piraeus Bank by Society General (163m euros), convertible into Piraeus shares or Tier 1 capital.
The purchase comes just over two months after Piraeus bought the profitable side of state-owned lender ATEbank.

The purchase will boost Piraeus Bank Group’s pro-form assets to 77bn euros, its loan portfolio to 46bn euros and savings to 37bn euros. The new group, which will include Piraeus, ATEbank and Geniki – will have a combined workforce of 18,000, a branch network of 1,328 units in 10 countries and a customer base of 6 million.
 Michalis Sallas, chairman of the Piraeus Bank Group, commenting on the agreement, said: “Following the purchase of selected assets of ATEbank, Piraeus Bank continues to play a pivotal role in the restructuring of the Greek banking system. The addition of Geniki Bank will further improve the capital and funding sources of our group and strengthens our position ahead of a forthcoming bank recapitalization plan."

The agreement is part of a framework set by the Bank of Greece and the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund (HFSF) that is aimed at achieving a restructuring of the domestic banking system and strengthening financial stability.
 The terms and preconditions of the transactions have been approved by the HFSF, while the deal is expected to be completed before the end of 2012, pending approval by market authorities.
 Piraeus Bank said the deal will boost its capital adequacy rate by 1.2 percentage points, strengthen its liquidity by more than 300m euros and significantly raises the possibility of covering a future share capital increase plan.

News

Eurogroup approves extension, no decision on loan tranche:

Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras talks with IMF Managing Director Lagarde at a Eurogroup meeting in Brussels (Reuters)

Greece received a two-year extension to its fiscal adjustment programme, but no decision was made on the disbursement of an outstanding 31.5 tranche of an EU/IMF bailout loan at Monday's Eurogroup meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Brussels.
 "Together with the Greek adjustment program the Eurogroup will further discuss (Greece's) financing needs and debt sustainability at an extraordinary meeting that will be convened on 20 November," the ministers said in a joint statement that was read out by Eurogroup president Jean-Claude Juncker at a press conference after the meeting, adding that a few more "prior actions" remained to be implemented by the Greek authorities by then.
 The Eurogroup acknowledged the considerable efforts made by the Greek citizens and welcomed the resolve of the Greek authorities to put the programme back on track, particularly after parliament's adoption of a "substantial set of reforms (omnibus bill of austerity measures) as well as a convincing budget for 2013" on November 7 and 11 respectively, Juncker said, adding that "these have received a preliminary positive assessment" by the European Commission (EC), European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) Troika of Greece's international lenders.
 He said that the ratification process for the disbursement of the next tranche by the eurozone national parliaments will begin shortly before November 20, after which the Eurogroup will convene again, possibly on November 26, either in person or by teleconference, to ascertain whether everything is in place for the final approval of the next loan tranche to Greece.

News

Troika letter "closed" discussion on disputed labour issues:

He troika of international lenders on Sunday evening sent a letter to Labour Minister Yiannis Vroutsis in which they "close" the discussion on the disputed issues of marriage benefits and collective labour agreements, ministry sources told state-run AMNA news agency.
According to the sources, the EC-ECB-IMF representatives state that "the Greek side, in the context of the negotiation on the labour issues, achieved the biggest possible agreement".
The troika rejects the preservation of the marriage benefit and says that its abolition has been already voted, while they are also absolutely negative to the preservation of the residual extension of the branch collective labour agreements.
However, they appear to be positive towards the ministry's proposals on the layoff compensations, so that the cuts will be contained at 15 percent for the high salaries, while the freeze on the three-year salary maturity raises will be maintained until the completion of the Medium-Term Programme at the end of 2015.
DEMOCRATIC LEFT:

We do not want to vote for the changes in the labour regime", Democratic Left central committee secretary Spyros Lykoudis said on Monday, speaking on public radio, leaving, however, open windows for a compromise.
"The labour issues have five sides. If they (the troika) step back in four of them, then okay. We do not play games here, neither us nor the other side. We speak on the substance," he said.
Asked whether the government will face the risk of collapsing if the measures are tabled in a single article, he said: "That is true, but I believe prudence and a collective sense will prevail in order for a solution to be found. We truly want the government's cohesion and not a political and governmental crisis to arise..."
 Democratic Left spokesman Andreas Papadopoulos, speaking on private VIMA radio station earlier on Monday, said that he doesn't know if his party will vote against the package of measures, but he clarified that it will not accept the foreseen changes to the labour regime.
 "There is time for negotiation, provided this takes place at a high level," said Papadopoulos, referring to the troika's persistence on not accepting changes on the issue of residual extension of branch collective labour agreements and in the abolition of the wedding benefit.

News

Stournaras: No cause for concern over next tranche:

Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras 

There is no cause for concern over the disbursement of the next loan tranche, Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras said on Friday, following recent statements by European officials that spoke of a delay in the disbursement.
After a meeting with Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, Stournaras reassured that the 31.5 billion euro tranche will be disbursed and that there is no cause for concern.
The finance minister also sent a message to the country’s partners that the government has done what was required of it and that the partners must now act accordingly.
Commenting on the disagreement that has broken out between the EU and the IMF over the Greek debt, Stournaras clarified that there is indeed a discussion on the sustainability of the Greek debt, but added that "they are not asking something from us".
Stournaras statements came just a few days before Monday’s Eurogroup meeting, during which the Greek side is expecting a “political statement”, Stournaras said. (Athen News/dv, AMNA)

Greece being pushed out of Eurozone; 

default lurks:

Antonis Samaras, Greek Prime Minister

The implementation of direct bank recapitalization by the European Stability Mechanism will force Greece out of the Eurozone by mid 2013.

The new ESM mandate, expected to be ratified in December 2012 at the next EU summit, may be focused on a new and creative way to aid Spain and Italy by providing direct recapitalization of weak banks and thereby bypassing the burden of carrying large debt obligations on their respective country’s balance sheets, but it may become a sword of Damocles for Greece.

Under the new mandate, Greece, the recipient of bailout funds from the international lenders, European Central Bank, International Monetary Fund and European Union known as the Troika, will not be eligible to apply for ESM aid and will therefore continue to carry the outstanding debt on its balance sheet