White & Case, working with Greece's Koutalidas law firm, has advised Alpha Bank A.E. on its sale to a consortium of funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management and the IFC of a mixed pool of non-performing loans to Greek SMEs and, together with Alpha Bank's wholly-owned group company Alpha Leasing S.A., repossessed real estate assets in Greece. Ashurst and Bernitsas advised the buyers.
"Alpha Bank's disposal of these portfolios is a positive and proactive step to reduce its balance sheet exposure to non-performing loans, and to improve its capital and liquidity position," said White & Case Partner Debashis Dey, who led the firm's deal team alongside Alpha Bank relationship Partner Gavin Weir.
According to White & Case, “as of September 30, 2018, the total on-balance sheet gross book values of the non-performing loan portfolio and the real estate portfolio were approximately EUR 1 billion and EUR 56 million respectively, and consideration for the disposals were agreed at EUR 337.1 million and EUR 51 million respectively. The disposal of the non-performing loan portfolio was completed successfully in the final week of December 2018, and the disposal of the real estate portfolio is expected to complete during 2019."
The White & Case team advising on the transaction was led by London-and-Dubai-based Partner Debashis Dey and Dubai-based Counsel Claudio Medeossi, and included Dubai-based Associates Adam Gao and Anna Leung. Frankfurt-based Partner Dennis Heuer and Local Partner Daniel Baierlein provided support on EU regulatory advice.
The Koutalidis team included Partners Nikos Salakas and George Naskaris and Associates Effie Papoutsi and Fani Chlampoutaki.
The London-based Ashurst team was led by Partners Olga Galazoula and Paul Miller.
The Bernitsas law firm team consisted of Partner Athanasia Tsene and Associates Dionysis Flambouras, Sofia-Georgia Katrivesi, and Fanis Krystallis.
