NBG close to announcing buyer for Romanian subsidiary

National Bank of Greece (NBG) said it was very close to announcing the buyer of Banca Romaneasca, its subsidiary in Romania. Leonidas Fragiadakis, the general manager of NBG, told Reuters in an interview that the sale would be closed in the coming months, and would bring about an increase in capital and liquidities level of the group. Credit Suisse is advising on the transaction. Besides purchasing the bank, the buyer will reimburse a EUR 550 million loan that Banca Romanesca took from NBG, leading to an increase in the group’s liquidities level. Banca Romaneasca has a network of 110 branches in Romania. It is the 14th biggest local bank with assets of RON 6.38 billion and a market share of 1.62% at the end of 2016. NBG is also in the process of selling its smaller operations in Serbia, Albania and Cyprus. At the beginning of this year it sold 99% of its Bulgarian subsidiary United Bulgarian Bank (UBB) and its leasing division Interlease EAD to Belgian group KBC for EUR 610 million. In June of 2016 it sold its Turkish division Finansbank to Qatar National Bank for EUR 2.7 billion. At the same time, it sold its private equity division NBGI, the hotel complex Astir Palace and its South Africa subsidiary. Last week, Dutch insurance company EXIN bought 75% of the insurance division of NBG for EUR 718 million. Hungarian OTP in pole position to acquire Banca Romaneasca editor@romania-insider.com