Romania: Schoenherr advises Piraeus Bank on sale of its participation in EUR 400m NPEs portfolio to APS

"We are delighted to have advised Piraeus Bank on completing the sale of its participation in this Romanian NPEs portfolio," said partner Matei Florea, who led the Schoenherr team advising on the project. "For over a decade, Schoenherr has provided legal advice in some of the country's largest NPLs portfolio transactions, supporting financial resilience and the functioning of the Romanian banking system."

Founded in 1916, Piraeus Bank is today the leading bank in Greece in terms of customer loans and deposits. The group exited the Romanian market in 2018, with the sale of its local banking operations to the US investment fund JC Flowers, a transaction in which Schoenherr Romania acted as legal counsel to Piraeus.

APS is a leading non-performing loans (NPLs) investor and servicer active in 15 countries. It currently manages over 100 NPLs portfolios with a total nominal value of more than EUR 11bln.

The EBRD is a leading institutional investor in Romania. To date, the bank has invested more than EUR 10.9bln in 525 projects in the country, focusing on further developing the financial sector and capital markets, financing infrastructure and boosting private-sector productivity.

The Schoenherr Romania core team advising Piraeus Bank in this matter was led by Matei Florea (partner) and included Valeria Stropșa (senior attorney at law) and Silviu Lazăr (senior attorney at law). Merger clearance and FDI screening were covered by the firm's competition, EU & foreign trade team led by Georgiana Bădescu (partner).