August 7 (SeeNews) - National Bank of Greece (NBG) has signed an agreement to sell Serbia's Vojvodjanska Banka and NBG Leasing to OTP Banka Srbija, the Serbian unit of Hungarian banking group OTP.
The agreed consideration for the entire share capital of Vojvodjanska Banka and NBG Leasing amounts to 125 million euro ($147.6 million), NBG said in a filing with the Athens Stock Exchange on Friday.
You can subscribe to our M&A newsletter here
"After over 15 years of successful presence in Serbia, NBG divests from its Serbian operations to deliver on its commitments to the European authorities under the restructuring plan," the CEO of NBG, Leonidas Fragkiadakis, said. "The transaction further strengthens NBG's position in terms of capital and liquidity, allowing for the redeployment of resources to support the Greek economic recovery.”
The deal also includes the sale of a portfolio of Serbian-risk corporate loans to OTP Banka Srbija, the NBG said without revealing further details.
The transaction is expected to increase the CET1 ratio of NBG by around 30 basis points and, taking into account the repayment of the intra-group debt, strengthen its liquidity position by some 280 million euro, the Greek lender noted.
As a result of the acquisition, expected to be closed by the end of 2017, the market share of the OTP Group in Serbia will rise to 5.7% and the lender will become the seventh largest bank in the country, OTP said in a separate statement on Friday.
The completion of the deal is subject to approval from the central banks of Hungary and Serbia, the General Council of the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund (HFSF) and anti-trust approvals, NBG said.
OTP Banka Srbija was founded in May 2007. The lender was incorporated after the merger of Serbian banks Niska Banka, Zepter banka and Kulska banka.
In June, Belgium's KBC Group completed the acquisition of National Bank of Greece's subsidiary United Bulgarian Bank (UBB) and leasing company Interlease in Bulgaria for a total consideration of 610 million euro.
($ = 0.846708 euro)