Greece's Alpha Bank offers to buy Emporiki

[August 01, 2012]  ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Greece's Alpha Bank says it has made an offer to French lender Credit Agricole to buy its Greek subsidiary, Emporiki Bank.

A statement from Alpha Bank Tuesday said it had made an offer to buy all the shares in Emporiki but gave no further details.

Greek banks are under pressure to merge to cope with the country's financial crisis.

On Friday, the government said it would sell the healthy parts of state-run ATEBank to Piraeus Bank in a deal Piraeus said will cost it euro95 million ($116.3 million). The government will hold onto ATEBank's soured investments.

Earlier this year, Alpha Bank and Greece's Eurobank called off merger talks.

[Associated Press]

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