Sea Star-

Sea Star Capital Plc, a Cyprus-based holding company, paid about 250 million euros for stakes in two Greek ferry operators, a move that may signal consolidation in the country’s coastal shipping industry.

Sea Star, which is majority-owned by Yiannis Vardinoyiannis, CEO of ANEK Lines, paid 92.4 million for 26 percent of Minoan Lines, Greece’s second-biggest ferry operator.

Sea Star also acquired a 35 percent stake in closely held Hellenic Seaways for 154.9 million from Amadeus Navigation, controlled by ship-owner Panayiotis Laskaridis.

 Sea Star is already the biggest stakeholder in ANEK, the fourth-biggest operator, with 15 percent. “Potential cooperation or merger between the three companies will create the biggest Greek ferry operator,” Piraeus Securities said in a note to investors.

Proton-

Greece’s Proton Bank announced that its shareholders are in talks with Bank Hapoalim Ltd, Israel’s second-biggest lender by assets, about a possible cooperation, including Hapoalim acquiring a stake in the company.

The talks between the companies’ shareholders relate to a possible participation by Hapoalim in Proton’s share capital as well as a possible strategic cooperation between the two, Athens-based Proton said today in a bourse filing.

Springer-

German newspaper publisher Axel Springer has abandoned plans to enter television and instead pocketed 509 million euros ($748 million) for its 12 percent stake in ProSiebenSat1 from private equity firms that control Europe’s second-largest broadcaster.