NGB sells Finansbank's shares to National Bank of Qatar

On 21 December 2015, National Bank of Greece Board of Directors approved the divestiture to Qatar National Bank of NBG’s 99.81 percent stake in Finansbank together with other minor direct and indirect interests. The agreed consideration for the transaction amounts to 2,750 million euros. In addition, Qatar National Bank will repay upon closing the 910 million dollars of subordinated debt that National Bank has extended to Finansbank, increasing the liquidity position of the NBG group by approximately 3.5 billion euros.

While maintaining its leading liquidity position among Greek banks with a domestic Loan-to-Deposit ratio of 96 percent, NBG will utilize the liquidity generated by the transaction to reduce significantly its cost of funding through the repayment of costly Pillar II bonds and the associated reduction of the bank’s exposure to the Emergency Liquidity Assistance mechanism.

Leonidas Fragkiadakis, NBG CEO, said: "After almost ten years of successful presence in Turkey, NBG divests from Finansbank to deliver on its commitment to the shareholders and the European Authorities. As a result of this transaction, NBG will be the best capitalised and the most liquid bank in Greece. We aim to redeploy our resources to support the Greek economic recovery. I am pleased that the new owner of Finansbank, Qatar National Bank, has a long-term strategic interest in Turkey and will continue to grow and develop the bank.”

The transaction is subject to the approval from: (i) the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency; (ii) the Qatar Central Bank; (iii) the Turkish Competition Board; (iv) the Turkish Capital Markets Board and (v) the Turkish Treasury.

Goldman Sachs International and Morgan Stanley & Co. International plc are acting as joint financial advisors to NBG. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is acting as international legal counsel to NBG and Verdi Avukatlık Ortaklığı as local legal counsel to NBG.