Italian firm to undertake Greek NPLs

Italy’s biggest bad-loan manager, doBank, will undertake the loans of some 400 Greek small and medium-sized enterprises which owe Greek banks a total of 2 billion euros.

Greece’s four systemic lenders (Alpha, National, Eurobank and Piraeus) are in the final stage of talks with doBank, a subsidiary of US asset manager Fortress, and an agreement is expected to be signed after the completion of the business plan and the selection of the enterprises whose loans will come under the management of the Italian company.

This concerns small businesses with an annual turnover of 1.5-2 million euros or more, active across all sectors of the economy, from agriculture to tourism. Their common denominator is that they have taken out loans from two, three or all four banks, which makes it difficult for creditors to coordinate in the settlement of their debts. They have been selected by the Greek banks for the deal because owe money to more than one lender and have failed to adequately service their debts.

DoBank’s approach toward the companies will be conducted individually, with visits by specialized officials whose mission will be to tackle each firm’s particular debt problem.