Ethniki Insurance

Following the trend set by global markets since late on Tuesday, buyers in Athens took advantage of the benchmark's three-day decline on Wedneday, allowing Greek stocks to recover some lost ground. However, trading volume was considerably lower than in the last few sessions.

The acquisition of National Bank's insurance business by Calamos and Exin seems poised to collapse after Calamos Family Partners (CFP) announced that it had filed legal action against EXIN Financial Services Holdings, the Dutch holding company of the EXIN Group.

Exin Financial Group has pledged that by end-January it will have submitted the details of the funding needed to acquire Ethniki Insurance. So far the group is said to have informed the monitoring authorities and National Bank of Greece that Pimco and Berkshire Hathaway will participate in the deal's financing.

National Bank of Greece and the Exin Group submitted on Thursday to the Bank of Greece a draft set of documents for the acquisition of NBG subsidiary Ethniki Insurance by Exin Financial Services Holding, paving the way for the implementation of the deal signed in June.

The board of Greece's National Bank (NBG) approved the sale of a majority stake in the group's wholly owned insurance subsidiary Ethniki to American-Dutch consortium Calamos-Exin, a banker close to the deal told Reuters on Tuesday.

NBG is selling the unit as part of a restructuring plan approved by the European Union to exit non-banking operations and focus on core banking.

The Greek-American consortium Calamos-Exin Group has been selected as the preferred bidder for the sale of Ethniki Insurance, a National Bank of Greek subsidiary, in the context of the tender that according to sources is nearing its conclusion.

An offer for National Bank's insurance business by Calamos and Exin will be hard to match, partly because of the cultural and commercial links they have with Greece, the investment duo's chief executives said.

The submission of binding offers for the acquisition of National Bank's insurance arm appears to be just a matter of days, if not hours, following the rejection by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Competition of Greece's request to suspend the sale.

National Bank of Greece expects to sell its subsidiary Ethniki Insurance this year and plans other sales as part of its restructuring, its chief executive said on Wednesday.

Last month Greece's second largest lender hired Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley as advisers on the sale of the insurance unit, banking sources close to the deal said.

National Bank of Greece aims to have the binding bids for the sale of its subsidiary Ethniki Insurance within the first quarter of 2017. According to the group's commitment in its restructuring plan, the sale must take place in the first half of next year, but bank sources say the process will begin in January.