Piraeus NPLs.

in the maritime sector. The seminar will focus on the Korean shipbuilding industry and in cooperation with Greek shipping companies will provide insight into Korean ship finance and Greek maritime policy. In the second part of the event, new technologies in shipbuilding and safety will be presented, with the focus being on Korea’s eco-ships, cyber security and smart ship technology. The event at the Metropolitan Expo center is jointly organized by the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Greece and the Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research (IOBE).

Greece’s largest lender Piraeus Bank said yesterday it had agreed to sell a 1.45 billion euros portfolio of secured, nonperforming business loans to Bain Capital Credit as part of moves to reduce its bad debts. Greek banks have been under regulatory pressure to tackle their bad debt problem, which restricts their ability to expand credit and help the economy recover, with so-called nonperforming exposures (NPEs) being their biggest challenge. Piraeus said the deal, subject to approval by regulators and Greece’s HFSF bank rescue fund, which owns 26.2 percent of the lender, would reduce its NPE ratio by 100 basis points and boost equity capital by 20 basis points. It did not provide further details on the pricing. Piraeus, which holds 32.2 billion euros in NPEs, was advised by UBS on the deal. Greek central bank data shows nonperforming exposures fell by 4.7 billion euros to 95.7 billion at the end of December, 43.1 percent of overall loan books. Bain Capital Credit is a credit specialist with about $37 billion in assets under management, investing across credit strategies, including leveraged loans, high-yield bonds, distressed debt and nonperforming loans (NPLs).