ATHENS, May 13 (Reuters) - Greece's second-largest lenderPiraeus Bank said on Monday it planned to buy back 321million euros ($416.4 million) of hybrid bonds as part ofefforts to boost its capital base.
The bond buy-back forms part of the country's bankrecapitalisation scheme backed by the European Union andInternational Monetary Fund, under which its main four bankswill receive 27.5 billion euros to restore their solvencylevels.
Alpha Bank and National Bank havealready launched a similar offer to repurchase hybrid bonds at adiscount.
Piraeus said that Barclays, BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank would manage its buyback offer,which aims to boost its Core Tier 1 capital adequacy ratio by upto 156 million euros.
The buy-back offer is expected to run until May 24.
Barclays (BARC)
