Apollo Global Management LLC is the preferred bidder to buy a non-performing loan portfolio being sold by Bank of Cyprus, Bloomberg has reported.
Citing people with knowledge of the matter it said that Bank of Cyprus and Apollo are in talks in London to finalise details of the sale of a roughly €3 billion portion of the lender’s bad-loans book. A spokesman for Apollo declined to comment.
Despite the economic recovery over the past five years, NPLs still weigh on banks’ profitability and have prevented significant improvement in the financial health of households and companies, the International Monetary Fund said in July. The European Commission and European Central Bank earlier this year called on the country’s banks to prioritise reducing bad loans.
Bank of Cyprus reported some progress in its first-quarter earnings, saying it had reduced bad-loan exposure for a 12th consecutive quarter.
With the NPL sale progressing, Bank of Cyprus said earlier on Wednesday it would move the date for its second-quarter results to Aug. 27 from Aug. 23.
