Greek Banks reported Q1 results last week. As expected, (L4L) NII and core PPP declined (-9% yoy/-5% qoq) on lower Euribor (-135bps/-45bps). The solid run rate on fees, lower time depos and -potentially- stronger loan volumes resulted in banks confirming FY targets, even if Euribor ends up 25bps lower than budgeted.

Greek economic growth and fiscal discipline support lending & fee expansion. Deposit dynamics and strong asset quality support organic earnings/capital generation. While accommodating for higher payouts, with buybacks contributing to EPS growth.

’If you cannot explain it simply, then you do not understand it well enough.’’ Testing ourselves, we share our understanding of each Greek investment case we cover within a few lines.
Conclusions: Our base case scenario is materializing, i.e., Mitsotakis administration renewing its mandate and Greece avoiding a recession. Equities have re-rated and are +36% YTD, so now…

What’s new? With Alpha Bank (Jun 7) and Bank of Cyprus (Jun 8) holding their Investor Update events this week, we thought it would be useful to wrap up Q1 2023 results and touch upon the major banking trends in Greece. And what better way to do this than through a RoTE waterfall chart that shows each bank’s RoTE components in margin terms (% assets). Additionally, we summarize the most notable points out of Q1 2023 results.

What’s new? Q1 2023 results showed refining margins remain at super high levels of $21-$22/bbl keeping quarterly clean EBITDA at E400m-E450m. Low/reversed working capital resulted to solid cash flow conversion (E230m FCFE MOH, E540m ELPE) with both companies reporting lower net debt qoq (

What’s new? With this note, we are making a case in favor of Greek banks, considering recent banking developments in the US and Europe, namely the collapse of SVB and Signature Bank, the rescue of First Republic Bank, and the acquisition of Credit Suisse by UBS, including the wipe out of AT1 holders. We reiterate our OWN IT ratings on NBG, Eurobank and Piraeus Bank.
We should also flag Bank of Cyprus, which can now boast about its huge cash balance of 30% to total assets (earning 3% yield @ ECB’s DFR) and low unrealized losses in its HtM securities portfolio.