Alpha to sell loan portfolio of 2.5 bln euros
Alpha Bank is transferring debts in its portfolio from cards, consumer loans and small corporate loans delayed between five and seven years, with a total value of 2.5 billion euros.
“Venus” is the second biggest portfolio after Eurobank’s “Eclipse” to be transferred to funds. The deal is to be completed by end-January, which is the deadline for the submission of binding offers by candidate investors.
The portfolio to go up for sale is made by up by 65 percent of consumer loans, 8 percent of credit card debts and 27 percent of small corporate arrears. They concern 240,000 loans taken out by 156,000 debtors, which means that there are debtors with two or three loans. The bank has written off a high number of those loans.
KPMG London is running the “Venus” project for Alpha and initial signs point to a strong interest in the portfolio, while such sales are at the center of the Greek banks’ efforts to tackle the problem of bad loans. According to the revised targets to which banks have committed themselves, the reduction of the nonperforming exposures (NPEs) will be achieved partly by the sale of 11.5 billion euros of debts up to 2019. The four systemic banks have already channeled the sale of over 9 billion for 2018.