Greek lender Piraeus Bank wants to sell its subsidiaries in Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia, and unload EUR 4 billion worth of non-performing loans by the end of this year, said Piraeus Bank’s new CEO Christos Megalou in an interview for Bloomberg.

"Our prime aim is to reduce our exposure in non-core banking Greek holdings and in international bank subsidiaries in Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria,” the CEO said.

“If we implement that without a capital hit, this will have a positive effect on our balance sheet."

Piraeus has already sold bad loans of EUR 0.5 billion in Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia in the last 18 months. The bank has also managed to obtain EUR 3 million after selling 29 properties via an online tender.

The new management has already set up a distinct unit that will be in charge of selling unwanted assets.

Piraeus Bank needs to get rid of non-performing loans worth EUR 4 billion by the end of this year, according to the restructuring plan established with the European Central Bank. It needs to reduce the bad loans from EUR 23 billion to EUR 19.1 billion, Megalou said.

Piraeus Bank Romania sells loans through online audio-video service

editor@romania-insider.com