Bernitsas acted as Greek law counsel to Morgan Stanley, as Global Coordinator, Goldman Sachs and BNP Paribas, as Joint Lead Managers, and Optima Bank (the Bank), as Co-Manager, in connection with the Bank’s successful inaugural issuance and offering to institutional investors of €200m Additional Tier 1 Notes (the Notes) and the listing of the Notes on the Euro MTF market of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.
The transaction attracted strong investor interest from more than 150 institutional investors, with the book of the transaction exceeding €2.2bn, resulting in an oversubscription of more than 11 times. This was the largest oversubscription achieved in 2026 by a EUR AT1 issue in Europe and the largest oversubscriptions achieved by a Greek bank’s EUR AT1 ever, thus demonstrating investor confidence in the Bank, its solid fundamentals and business model.
Counsel Alexia Kefalogianni and Associate Adonis Sfyris, in cooperation with Partner Nikos Papachristopoulos, advised on this transaction.