PQH, the single special liquidator appointed by the Bank of Greece to dispose of the loans left behind by banks that shut down during the financial crisis, has signed agreements to transfer three loan portfolios with a total actuarial value of €4.8 billion, representing outstanding loans of €14.7 billion. [SHUTTERSTOCK]
Three of the “big four” Greek banks – Alpha, Eurobank and Piraeus – who had created holding companies plan to absorb them in an effort to simplify their structure.
Adoption of the so-called “hive-down” approach, that is transferring the most valuable part of the business to a wholly owned subsidiary, had been motivated by the banks’ clearing their books of nonperforming loans and taking the resulting losses and their need to avoid paying deferred taxes and/or have increased the state become a major shareholder. Eurobank was the first to announce the absorption of Eurobank Holding by the bank (Eurobank SA) for reasons of operational efficiency, it said.
Alpha and Piraeus are expected to follow suit. National Bank was the only one among the big four not to create a holding company.