KBC and OTP bid for National Bank of Greece's Bulgarian unit, sources say

Belgian bank KBC and Hungarian lender OTP Bank have made offers to acquire United Bulgarian Bank (UBB), the Bulgarian subsidiary of National Bank of Greece (NBG), according to banking industry sources.

NBG is seeking to sell UBB, Bulgaria's fourth largest lender, as part of its restructuring plan agreed with banking regulators to boost its capital position. It is also seeking to sell off its National Insurance arm.

"The data room is now closed. There are two offers, one by KBC and one by OTP," one of the sources said.

"A sale to one of the two bidders is likely to be agreed by the end of the year," a second source said.

UBB had a book value of 1.32 billion levs ($724 million) at the end of September, central bank data showed. Its total assets stood at 7.1 billion levs.

However, earlier this month UBB, which is 99.9 percent owned by NBG,...