JPMorgan upbeat on Greek banks, upgrades Piraeus to 'overweight'

ATHENS, Sept 13 (Reuters): JPMorgan upgraded Piraeus Bank to "overweight" and said it was positive on Greece's four big banks in a research report published on Tuesday.
Greek bank shares are down about 25 per cent in the past three months and despite a strong improvement in operating performance remain unappreciated due to EU-wide recession fears.
"Piraeus has undergone a remarkable operational turnaround and cut 20 billion euros of NPEs (non-performing exposures) from its balance sheet since end-2020, while visibly improving its revenue and cost structure," the report said.
Piraeus Bank has outperformed its business plan and has raised its fully-loaded Core Equity Tier 1 target to 11 per cent from 10 per cent.
JPMorgan said Piraeus' share valuations at 3.1 times 2023 expected price-to-earnings and 0.2 times price-to-tangible book value looked very attractive, noting they remained at levels when the bank's NPE ratio was close to 50 per cent and it had a 2 billion euro CoCo instrument on its balance sheet.