Watch: HSBC Malta deal sealed in two weeks – CrediaBank shareholder
‘It was a very straightforward deal,’ says Alexandros Exarchou
Negotiations for Greek bank CrediaBank to take over HSBC Malta were completed in just 15 days, according to the bank’s majority shareholder Alexandros Exarchou.
Exarchou was speaking to Times of Malta in an exclusive interview in which he discussed negotiations to buy a majority stake in HSBC Malta, as well as a series of criminal accusations he is facing related to subsidy fraud and misappropriation of funds.
Although HSBC announced plans to leave Malta in September 2024, Exarchou said he only first became aware of CrediaBank’s interest on July 15, a month to the day before the deal was sealed.
Exarchou said he was never involved in direct negotiations with HSBC but played a major part in setting the bank’s maverick negotiating strategy.
After deciding to go ahead with the deal, the bank made its offer “in very late July or the first days of August,” telling HSBC that any negotiations needed to be quick.
“We clearly told them that our offer is valid for 15 days,” Exarchou said. “This is a good price, but it is valid for 15 days.”
“If they wanted us and they wanted our price, they had to say yes on or before 15 August, otherwise we would have gone on vacation,” he said.
Ultimately, Exarchou said, “it was a very straightforward deal”.
On August 15, a month after Exarchou says he was first informed of the opportunity, HSBC Malta and CrediaBank issued twin statements announcing that the Greek bank had been selected as HSBC’s preferred bidder.
Minority shareholders ‘will be happy’ in the long run
Exarchou stopped short of naming the agreed price (“the bank will announce it when the time comes,” he said), but insisted that the bank’s minority shareholders, who own almost a third of HSBC Malta, “will be happy in the end”.
“Whether or not they will find the price we offered as good as they would like is one thing,” he said, hinting that shareholders will be rewarded in the long run.
It’s not the biggest bank in Greece, not by far,” Exarchou says. “But it’s the healthiest- Alexandros Exarchou
Market rules say that CrediaBank will also need to offer to buy minority shareholders’ shares, with shareholders free to accept or decline the offer.
“Whoever is going to keep their participation will make more money than they have now,” he promised.
Exarchou said the deal will effectively double CrediaBank’s value, raising its tangible book value from around €750m to over €1.3b.
Two struggling Greek banks merge into one
Attica Bank has had a tumultuous history, frequently finding itself in trouble with regulators over the years and widely perceived as a cradle for bad loans and poor investments.
Although the bank says it turned a new page after an alarming 2016 inspection by the European Central Bank, ripping up its management structure, it was still struggling when it turned to Exarchou last year.
Exarchou is mostly known in Greece for his role in Aktor, a long-established construction company that has recently expanded to focus on other sectors such as renewable energy and real estate. The company is responsible for several major infrastructure projects around Greece, from the building of the Acropolis Museum to the recently opened Thessaloniki metro.
Exarchou had recently joined up with two other prominent Greek businessmen, controversial shipping magnates Dimitris Bakos and Ioannis Kaimenakis, to establish an investment company called Thrivest.
Exarchou said, “Thrivest was initially created in order to invest in Pancreta Bank,” another small Greek bank which had taken over from HSBC when the banking giant left Greece.
Like Attica Bank, Pancreta Bank was far from a success story, burdened with poor loans and struggling to make ends meet.
Exarchou says Thrivest first bought Pancreta Bank and, later, a stake in Attica Bank, working with the Greek government to merge the two struggling banks and create a new bank that can compete with the country’s four largest banks.
What emerged is CrediaBank, in which Thrivest has a 54% stake, with the Greek government owning the remaining 36%.
Exarchou admits that the bank is still some way off from its lofty target of competing with Greece’s largest banks but argues that its prospects are rosy.
“It’s not the biggest bank in Greece, not by far,” Exarchou says. “But it’s the healthiest”.