Hellenic Bank managers and technocrats will meet and question members of the Cooperative Central Bank (CCB) today and tomorrow.
These days are particularly crucial since the developments will determine the course of things regarding Cooperative Banks and the bank sector in general.
Hellenic Bank officially confirmed on Friday its participation in the CCB privatisation process. According to “Phileleftheros” it has moved on to the next step, which would lead to an even closer analysis of the data that make up the Co-operative Organization profile: from money-laundering cases to the fine print in loan agreements, the CCB will be put under the microscope.
Hellenic Bank continues its operations in view of its intention to absorb bank operations amounting to the € 5 billion in Cooperative Bank performing loans. If Hellenic Bank makes a proposal for CCB it is estimated that additional funds of between 500-600 million euros will be needed. These are expected to be covered by the existing major shareholders including CPB FBO Third Point Hellenic Recovery Fund LP (CY) 26.20%, Wargaming Group 24.92%, and Demetra Investment 10.05%.
The deadline for the submission of binding proposals from potential investors is Monday, April 30th. Apart from Hellenic Bank, which aims at the ‘healthy’ part of CCB, there are still two or three investors who are interested. There is also an offer on the table for the full control of CCB. According to sources, Eurobank in Cyprus is interested in the acquisition of the ‘good part’ of CCB. There is also interest in the acquisition of the entirety of CCB, including the Bank’s ‘bad part’, from the Apollo investment fund.
