Vodafone on the verge of buying Wind Hellas

Should be a done deal by Xmas assuming the NRA allows it. This should create an equivalent competitor to Greek Cosmote who controls about  48 percent of the market. Wind has had its share of troubles, bankrupt almost twice where shareholders via their representatives were forced to take control and salvage the company.

The issue will be network and administrative rationalization with over 1000 layoffs. This will also result in rationalizations on the supply side (infrastructure and service vendors) as well as collateral industries and government representative associations.This will also mark the end of an era since Telestet (Stet hellas-TIM-Wind) was the first to offer mobile services at premium prices in Greece.

The move will control with Cosmote most of the mobile market, for the time being.

The move is expected to also bring some sort of price stabilization, since prices have been in free fall since 2008.

Greek Alpha Bank and Eurobank to Merge

Alpha Bank, part of the Kostopoulos group, and Eurobank, part of the Latsis group have formally announced their plans to merge. The merger will be supported by Quatar interests and the result will be a new bank, possibly named AlphaEuro which will rationalize the institutions' offerings in the Hellenic, Balkan, Cypriot and other markets.

No layoffs announced initially but rationalizations in management structures and eventually distribution channels and retail outlets are expected to take place in due times especially in areas (like the Athenian suburb of Agia Paraskevi) where the banks have outlets close to each other.

This is the first of several expected Greek bank mergers.