Greek Banks’ Capital Increases Signal End to Isolation

Alpha Bank SA and Piraeus Bank SA raised 2.95 billion euros ($4.07 billion) in new capital from foreign investors in the latest sign Greek lenders are bouncing back from the world’s biggest sovereign debt crisis that pushed them into isolation from international money markets.

“We have a bull market,” Dimitris Giannoulis, co-founder of ResearchGreece, an independent research provider based in Cyprus, said by phone. “The enormous demand and oversubscription show that there is huge interest in Greek banking stocks. Those that believe in the recovery story are more than those that don’t.”