By Stelios Bouras and Philip Pangalos
ATHENS--Greece's Eurobank (EUROB.AT) has joined the race to buy
Emporiki Bank of Greece (TEMP.AT), the Greek unit of France's
Credit Agricole SA (ACA.FR), it said Wednesday.
"Eurobank notifies the investing public that it is examining the
possibility of a buyout of Emporiki Bank and that it has not
submitted a buyout proposal," Eurobank said in a statement.
Eurobank's statement comes immediately after an earlier
announcement from National Bank of Greece SA (NBG), Greece's
largest lender, which said it hadn't submitted a binding offer for
Emporiki. Last month, National Bank said it had held talks with
Credit Agricole about a possible strategic alliance with
Emporiki.
Greece's Alpha Bank (ALPHA.AT) said Tuesday it had made an offer
for Emporiki.
Write to Stelios Bouras at stelios.bouras@dowjones.com and
Philip Pangalos at philip.pangalos@dowjones.com
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