National eyes 500 mln from Ethniki sale

National Bank expects to collect some 500 million euros from the transfer of up to 80 percent of its insurance subsidiary, Ethniki, whose sale process is set to start by the end of the month.

The anticipated price is below what Exin had proposed when it was selected as the preferred bidder in the original tender that collapsed after Exin failed to provide evidence that it had the necessary funds to buy Greece’s biggest insurer.

According to sources close to National’s management, the data rooms for the provision of information to interested investors will open by end-September and the sale is expected to be completed within the first quarter of 2020; that is a little later than the original deadline provided by the group’s transformation plan but within that set by the competition authorities in Brussels.

Ethniki’s sale will also improve National’s capital adequacy by 150 basis points.