The initiative is part of an agreement by Greece with international troika lenders, the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, to dispose of TT and Proton by mid-July in order to secure more bailout funds.
All the three lenders, who are majority-owned by the bank rescue vehicle – the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund (HFSF), placed their bids for TT.
Without revealing further details, National Bank chief executive Alexandros Tourkolias was quoted by Reuters as saying that the group made an offer for TT. Eurobank also added that it placed bid to buy the bank.
An Alpha executive told the news agency, "We submitted a strong, well-prepared offer for TT to Goldman Sachs, the HFSF’s adviser on the sale."
The HFSF has appointed Rothschild and Goldman Sachs to provide advice pertaining to the disposal of Proton and TT.
In January, the Greek authorities failed to divest TT, subsequently bifurcated bad loans from its portfolio and transferred less risky assets and deposits to a new entity New Hellenic Postbank, and now are gearing up to sell bad loans.
Apart from pumping €500m capital, the bank rescue vehicle HFSF infused €4bn into the bank, in an effort to bridge the funding gap between assets and liabilities and recapitalize the lender.
TT, which has assets of €13.7bn, deposits of €10.7bn and a network of nearly 200 branch offices, suffered by writedowns on Greek bonds and loan impairments.
