Piraeus Bank has finalized an agreement with Intrum to create a new Athens-based distress fund to manage NPL portfolios and manage real estate, with details emerging over the weekend.
According to reports, the Greek systemic lender's electronic platform Recovery Banking Unit will be transferred to the new company, while the share capital will be divided along the lines of 80 percent for Intrum and 20 percent for Piraeus Bank.
The deal is worth 410 million euros, with Intrum to allocate 328 million euros.
A date for inaugurating the new company is October 2019.
The development comes after ATHEX-listed Piraeus Bank returned to profitability in the first quarter of 2019, with net revenues from interest increased and expenditures decreased in comparison with Q1 2018, including a reduction of NPEs by 500 million euros.
With the sale of a NPL portfolio valued at 1.2 billion euros, the Greek lender is moving within targets of reducing "bad debt" by 3.5 billion euros for the entire year.
Specifically, Piraeus Bank posted net profits of 19 million euros, up from losses of 83 million euros in the same quarter of 2018.
