Piraeus Bank SA completed the sale of a majority stake in its Cypriot unit, Piraeus Bank (Cyprus) Ltd., to Holding M. Sehnaoui SAL for a consideration of €3.2 million.

The Cypriot bank also completed a €40 million capital hike, without the participation of the Greek bank. Following the transactions, Piraeus Bank's stake in the Nicosia-based lender dropped to 17.7%.

The transaction, which improves Piraeus Bank's common equity Tier 1 capital ratio by about 15 basis points, is part of the group's restructuring plan, as approved by the European Commission.

Holding M. Sehnaoui is a company fronted by long-time Lebanese banker Maurice Sehnaoui, who has been chairman of BLC Bank SAL since 2008 and served as chairman and general manager of Societe Generale de Banque au Liban SAL from 1981 to 2007.

Piraeus Bank's sole financial adviser on the transaction was UBS Ltd. Norton Rose Fulbright acted as international legal adviser to Piraeus, with Antis Triantafyllides & Sons LLC acting as local legal adviser.