National Bank of Greece (ADR) (NYSE:NBG) along with two other of Greece’s major banks submitted bids to acquire New TT HELLENIC POSTBANK S.A. (FRA:P7O) (OTCMKTS:TTHPY), before the July 15 deadline.
The deal is part of the terms set by Greece’s international troika of creditors consisting of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Greece Has Agreed To Sell Hellenic PostBank
According to a German daily, the troika of creditors expressed dissatisfaction with Greece government progress. Greece has agreed to sell TT HELLENIC POSTBANK S.A. (FRA:P7O) (OTCMKTS:TTHPY) and the small lender Proton by mid-July to get more bailout funds. All The Banks Are Majority Owned By HFSF.
All the three banks National Bank of Greece (ADR) (NYSE:NBG), Alpha Bank A.E. (ADR) (OTCMKTS:ALBKY) and Eurobank are majority owned by the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund (HFSF), the bank rescue vehicle. HFSF also owns New Hellenic Postbank and Proton.
Proposed Deal To Revamp Greece’s Banking
The proposed deal is indented to revamp Greece’s banking that has previously concentrated on strengthening capital and merging lenders. Goldman Sachs acts as the advisor to HFSF.
TT HELLENIC POSTBANK S.A. (FRA:P7O) (OTCMKTS:TTHPY) is Greece’s fifth largest lender. It has already obtained US $5.2 billion (4 billion euros) in capital after it has split its bad assets.
The bank rescue vehicle hired Rothschild and Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) as advisers on the sale of Proton and TT. A senior euro zone official earlier indicated the lenders were not satisfied with the way Greece is managing things, as the country failed to reform its public sector.
A few days back, the troika of creditors indicated that they completed their fact checking mission. They indicated while some important progress continues to be made, policy implementation is behind in other areas.
New Hellenic Postbank Sports A Healthy Look
Consequent to their efforts to sell TT failed, the Greece authorities had earlier wound down TT in January. The authorities stripped out bad loans from TT’s portfolio and transferred less risky assets and deposits to a new entity called New Hellenic Postbank. The bad loans are being sold.
To bridge the funding gap between assets and liabilities, the bank rescue vehicle pumped 4 billion euros into the bank besides a further 500 million as part of recapitalization effort.
New TT HELLENIC POSTBANK S.A. (FRA:P7O) (OTCMKTS:TTHPY) now sports a healthy look with assets of 13.7 billion euros, deposits of 10.7 billion spread across nearly 200 branches.
