National, CVC still talking about Ethniki

The management of the National Bank of Greece Group is keeping an open channel of communication with CVC Capital Partners for the sale of its subsidiary, Ethniki Insurance.

On Tuesday the group provided a presentation of the country’s leading insurer to the fund at its request, as CVC has returned to the process after the pandemic kept it at bay for months.

The health crisis was not the only reason NBG had frozen the sale process for Ethniki; another was the low price CVC had offered to buy out 80% of Greece’s biggest insurer, which Kathimerini understands did not exceed 500 million euros.

The rekindling of CVC’s interest was highlighted on Thursday by a statement from the Ethniki employees union, which revealed that the presentation analyzed the results of the first five months of the year, and that the NBG Group’s management has asked for the updating of Ethniki’s business plan.

After the process was frozen in March, until the emergence from the Covid-19 crisis, the NBG management had implied it was considering the suspension of Ethniki’s sale.