June 8 (SeeNews) - Greece's Piraeus Bank intends to sell its wholly-owned subsidiaries in Albania, Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia as part of a plan to reduce its foreign exposures, according to Greek media reports.
Piraeus’ plan includes shrinking the bank's non-performing exposures (NPEs) to below 20 billion euro ($22.5 billion) by 2020 from 33.3 billion euro in the first quarter and its non-performing loans (NPLs) past due more than 90 days, to around 8 billion euro from 23 billion euro at end-March, Greek newspaper Ekathimerini reported on Wednesday, quoting a Reuters news story published earlier that day.
You can subscribe to our M&A newsletter here
“By the end of 2020, it is expected that total Group assets will be reduced to 70 billion euro,” Piraeus Bank says in a statement on its website presenting its development strategy.
The lender will look to conduct a disciplined review of all existing businesses, in order to maximise resources deployed in the areas that Piraeus has a historically dominant position, the summary of the strategy reads.
“This will include a simplified Group structure and effective cost rationalisation measures, as well as further optimisation of our branch network and targeted investments in digitalization,” Piraeus added.
The Bulgarian unit of Piraeus has not appointed a consultant, nor has it carried out a financial and legal analysis, Sofia=based Capital newspaper reported on Wednesday, quoting Emil Angelov, CEO of Piraeus Bank Bulgaria. This means the procedure will most likely be governed centrally, according to Capital.
This is the latest in a string of asset divestitures of Greek banks, related to demands from international creditors. In February, the International Monetary Fund said that Greek banks have a weak capital structure and are exposed to the risk of non-performing loans, and urged action to be taken in this regard.
In April, Greece's Alpha Bank said it completed the sale of the entire share capital of its Serbian subsidiary to local lender AIK Banka, owned by industrial conglomerate MK Group.
In March, Bulgaria’s Postbank, a unit of Greece’s Eurobank EFG, said it completed the acquisition of the Bulgarian unit of Greece's Alpha Bank.
($ = 0.8881 euro)
Piraeus Bank Romania SA is among the biggest banks in SEE. You can download our SEE Top 100 ranking
here or subscribe to our free Top 100 newsletter
here