Piraeus likes Atlas

Piraeus Bank, Greece's fifth-largest by assets, has signed an agreement to buy 80 percent of Serbia's Atlas Bank, the Greek bank said yesterday. It did not provide financial details of the deal.

Piraeus has its own branches in Serbia and is also present in Bulgaria, Romania and Albania. Atlas, which has a 1 percent market share and a network of nine branches in three cities, reported net profit of 1.6 million euros ($2.09 million) in 2004. It has total assets of 63 million euros.