December 22 (SeeNews) - Greece's Piraeus Bank has entered into an agreement with private investment company J.C. Flowers & Co (JCF) for the sale of its entire shareholding stake in Piraeus Bank Romania (PBR).
The transaction has been approved by the board of directors of Piraeus Bank and the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund, and is pending regulatory approvals by the relevant authorities in Romania, Piraeus Bank said in a press release late on Thursday.
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The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2018.
"The sale of our banking operations in Romania represents another major step towards the timely execution of the Group's restructuring plan commitments, as those agreed with the Directorate General of Competition of the European Commission, as well as the implementation of the strategic plan of the Group, 'Agenda 202'," Piraeus Bank CEO Christos Megalou said.
"I am particularly glad that going forward PBR will be owned and managed by one of the most well-esteemed international private equity firms with significant experience in the financial services space across numerous jurisdictions," Megalou added.
The impact of the transaction on the group's regulatory capital position is expected to be neutral.
In June Piraeus Bank announced that it intends to sell its wholly-owned subsidiaries in Albania, Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia as part of a plan to reduce its foreign exposures.
"Piraeus Bank Romania has a solid solvency, liquidity, and asset quality profile in the fastest-growing economy in the European Union. We look forward to working with Piraeus Bank Romania to complete the acquisition and create a strong independent bank in the dynamic, local banking sector in Romania," JCF CEO and managing director Chistopher Flowers said.
UBS Limited is acting as exclusive financial advisor of Piraeus Bank for the transaction. White & Case LLP is acting as international legal counsel of Piraeus Bank and Schoenherr si Asociatii SCA as Romanian legal counsel of Piraeus Bank for the transaction.
Headquartered in Bucharest, PBR offers a range of products and services to domestic and international clients, including retail, small and medium sized enterprises and corporate banking. Its total assets amounted to 1.5 billion euro ($1.8 billion) at the end of September. PBR operates through 99 banking units, employs over 1,300 professionals and has some 150,000 active clients.
J.C. Flowers, founded in 1998, has invested more than $15 billion of capital in 50 portfolio companies in 17 countries across a range of industry subsectors including banking, insurance and reinsurance, securities firms, specialty finance, and services and asset management. With approximately $6 billion of assets under management, J.C. Flowers has offices in New York and London.
($=0.8423 euro)
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