The issue of Heracles cement company, the acquisition of the investment grade status, institutional growth possibilities and taxation will be some of the issues that will be discussed in the meeting between Finance Minister Kostis Hatzidakis and the Bank of Greece (BoG) governor Yannis Stournaras, on Tuesday.
On Monday, Hatzidakis had a meeting with representatives of the Financial Stability Fund to discuss the outstanding issues and the general directions regarding the disinvestment of the Fund from the portfolio of the systemic banks.
More specifically, Hatzidakis and Stournaras will discuss in their meeting later in the day the issue of Heracles cement company for two reasons. Firstly, because there is a significant backlog of bad loans from systemic banks. These are the National Bank’s Frontier II with a book value of 1 billion euros, the Sunrise III of Piraeus Bank with a book value of 506 million euros and the Solar package which reaches 1.5 billion euros and concerns all banks.
On the other hand, it was agreed to create Heracles III which will eventually include the bad loans of the non-systemic banks.
These matters, together with the out-of-court settlement, will form the portfolio of the new general secretary for credit matters, whose name has not yet been revealed.
Another issue to be raised will be the investment grade, especially after the recent statement of BoG governor Stournaras to Bloomberg TV, which seems to be close.
The continuous rise in interest rates and Stournaras’ opinion on this matter will also be on the agenda of his meeting with the finance minister.
Moreover, during the meeting between Hatzidakis and the staff of the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund, issues of disinvestment were discussed. The current legal framework for the operation of the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund defines 2025 as the last year of the Fund’s operation.
