Three of Greece’s largests lenders and a smaller bank made non-binding offers to acquire the healthy assets of the country’s state-controlled TT Hellenic Postbank SA (TT.AT), a banking official familiar with the process said, as regulators move to wind down its operations.
“National Bank of Greece (NBG), Alpha Bank (ALPHA.AT), Eurobank (EUROB.AT) and Attica Bank (TATT.AT) have submitted offers for TT,” the official said.
In late August, Greek banking regulators determined that state-owned Hellenic Postbank is no longer viable after suffering steep losses.
Postbank–44% owned by the Greek state–is among the smallest of Greece’s major banks with about a 6% market share of deposits and about 3% of loans.
The bids were submitted to Greece’s banking bailout fund to review them, before passing them to the country’s central bank for further evaluation.
The Hellenic Financial Stability Fund, which was set up under Greece’s rescue plan, is expected to become the principal shareholder in Greece’s four systemic banks under a recapitalization plan which is expected to take place early this year.
Eurobank, National Bank–which are expected to merge–each own stakes of about 6% in Hellenic Postbank. Together with Alpha Bank and Pireaus Bank (TPEIR.AT) they are the country’s four systemic banks.
(source: Dow Jones)
See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter.com. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. Follow GR on Google News and subscribe here to our daily email!
