Alpha Bank agrees sale of bad loan portfolio to Hoist Finance

Hoist Finance AB (publ)

28/12/2021 17:03

ATHENS, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Alpha Bank  ACBr.AT , one of
Greece's four biggest lenders, said on Tuesday it entered into a
binding agreement with Hoist Finance AB to sell non-performing
loans with a book value of 1.3 billion euros ($1.47 billion).
    The Orbit portfolio relates to retail unsecured
non-performing loans with the sale expected to be completed in
the first quarter of 2022, the bank said in a news release.
    "The transaction has been agreed at 108 million euros or 
7.4% of total unpaid principal balance,", the bank said.
    Greek banks have been working to reduce a pile of about 30
billion euros in bad loans, the legacy of a decade-long
financial crisis which shrank Greece's output by a quarter.
    The transaction is the third after the securitisation of
Galaxy and Cosmos portfolios. It is expected to reduce Alpha
Bank's non-performing exposures by 2.3 percentage points.
    ($1 = 0.8841 euros)

 (Reporting by Lefteris Papadimas; editing by Jason Neely)
 ((lefteris.papadimas@thomsonreuters.com; +30 210 3376477;
Reuters Messaging: lefteris.papadimas.reuters.com@reuters.net))