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American hedge fund billionaire John Paulson has sold 35 million shares in Piraeus Financial Holdings SA for €332.8 million ($372.7 million), cutting his stake in the parent of Greece's Piraeus Bank to about 8.4%.
The shares were sold on Nov. 4 in an accelerated placement handled by J.P. Morgan, priced at €9.51 each, the bottom of a €9.51 to €9.68 range set before the sale. The block made up 2.83% of the bank's share capital and was bought by international institutional investors.
Together with earlier sales that stayed just below the 3% level that would have required public disclosure, Paulson has sold about 71 million Piraeus shares this year, or about 5.8% of the company. He held 175,317,912 shares, a 14.18% stake, at the end of 2025. He now holds about 104 million shares, which keeps him the bank's largest shareholder.
At the placement price, the remaining holding is worth about €989 million ($1.11 billion).
Board seat stays
Alex Blades, a partner at Paulson & Co. and vice chairman of the Piraeus board, will remain an active board member, the bank said. Paulson's firm described the sales as a restructuring of its portfolio and said it remains positive on the bank.
Piraeus shares have risen about 45% since the start of the year, extending a long rally in Greek bank stocks as the country's lenders have cut their bad loans and resumed dividends.
The sale follows a similar move in February 2025, when Paulson sold a 2.8% stake in the bank.
A crisis-era bet
Paulson first invested in Piraeus during the recapitalizations that followed Greece's debt crisis and has been one of its largest shareholders since. In the bank's 2021 capital increase, carried out alongside the Greek state, he bought about 233 million shares at €1.15 each. The shares he sold this week fetched more than eight times that price.
Paulson, 70, founded Paulson & Co. in 1994 and became one of the best-known investors on Wall Street after betting against U.S. subprime mortgages before the 2008 financial crisis, a trade that earned his firm about $15 billion. He converted the firm into a family office in 2020 after returning outside investors' money. Beyond Greece, his holdings include stakes in gold miners and real estate.
Last month, he gave $250 million to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the largest gift in the school's history.
Figures were converted at €1 to $1.12.
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