Piraeus Bank, Greece’s largest lender by assets, has finalised the sale of a stake in the €1.9 bn Project Phoenix residential mortgages NPE securitisation to Swedish debt specialist Intrum.
Under the deal, Intrum has bought 30% of the mezzanine and junior notes for a price said to represent a 50% discount to gross book value, with the entire transaction understood to be valued at around €100 mln.
Piraeus, which is 26%-owned by the country’s HFSF bank rescue fund, is mulling the distribution of 65% of the mezzanine and junior notes to its shareholders, while retaining 5% itself.
Piraeus is also retaining 100% of the senior notes of the Project Phoenix securitisation, which will take advantage of Greece’s Hercules bad debt reduction scheme which provides state guarantees for senior tranches. The package mainly comprises residential mortgage non-performing loans.
Alantra and UBS acted as joint financial advisors to Piraeus on the transaction.
Intrum is a major partner of Piraeus Bank. Last year, it teamed up with the Greek lender to set up a platform to service a €27 bn bad loan portfolio. It agreed to pay €328 mln to acquire 80% of it, with Piraeus bank holding 20%.
