EXIN

National Bank expects to collect some 500 million euros from the transfer of up to 80 percent of its insurance subsidiary, Ethniki, whose sale process is set to start by the end of the month.

The new tender for the sale of leading insurer Ethniki will be open to all suitors after the first process attracted interest only from Chinese groups Fosun, Gongbao and Wintime.

Greece's National Bank (NBG) said on Thursday that a potential deal to sell a 75 percent stake of its wholly-owned insurance subsidiary to EXIN Financial Services Holding had expired a day earlier.

Greece's second-largest bank said March 28 was the "longstop date" for Netherlands-based EXIN to meet conditions in a purchase agreement signed in June 2017.

Chinese group Fosun formally expressed its interest in Greece's leading insurance company Ethniki on Thursday, at a price that should be adjusted based on the firm's financial data, according to Fosun's senior vice president and executive board director Lan Kang.

Investors John Calamos and John Koudounis are accusing the head of the Exin group, Matthew Fairfield, of trying to eject them from the group and from efforts to acquire Ethniki Insurance, according to a new lawsuit the pair have filed at a Dutch court.

Investors John Calamos and John Koudounis are seeking $41.7 million from Exin Financial Services Holdings BV - the money they have lent the company in the last couple of years to help finance the acquisition of Ethniki Insurance - according to the lawsuit they filed on February 6, which Kathimerini has seen.

While the clock is ticking toward the deadline by which Exin has to submit a complete lineup for the consortium to acquire Ethniki Insurance, there is strong interest from elsewhere regarding the sale of Greece's biggest insurer.

The management of National Bank of Greece is considering waiting out the nine-month period of the provisional agreement with Exin Financial Services Holdings BV for the sale of Ethniki Insurance to see whether the deal falls through.

The deal between National Bank of Greece and Exin Financial Services Holdings BV for the latter's acquisition of Ethniki Insurance appears to be hanging in the balance.

The investment vehicle formed by Exin Financial Services Holdings and Calamos Family Partners has ceased to exist.

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.