Piraeus in talks with Bain Capital for NPL package

Piraeus Bank, one of Greece’s four largest lenders, is in talks with Bain Capital to sell a portfolio of leasing contracts as part of efforts to clear nonperforming loans from its balance sheet, bankers close to the talks told Reuters.

Greek banks have been making headway in their bid to sell, write off or restructure billions of euros of bad debt accumulated during the last financial crisis.

On Monday, ratings agency Moody’s upgraded the four largest Greek banks and gave them a positive outlook, saying the move was primarily driven by their improving asset quality and good prospects for further boosting their recurring profitability.

Piraeus Bank’s portfolio of leasing contracts, dubbed Project Sunshine, has a gross book value of about 530 million euros.

Bain Capital is a multi-asset alternative investment firm based in Boston, Massachusetts.

In June last year Bain Capital Credit, a unit of the group, bought €1.6 billion of nonperforming corporate loans from Greece’s National Bank.

In 2018, Piraeus Bank agreed to sell a €1.45 billion portfolio of secured, nonperforming business loans to Bain Capital Credit as part of moves to reduce its bad debts.

[Reuters]