White & Case Advises Systemic Greek Banks on Groundbreaking Servicing Agreement

Global law firm White & Case LLP has advised the four systemic Greek banks – Alpha Bank, Eurobank, National Bank of Greece and Piraeus Bank – on their entry into an innovative and groundbreaking servicing agreement with Italian credit institution doBank S.p.A.

"This is an unprecedented move by the four banks to establish a servicing platform for the management of common non-performing loans (NPLs) extended by the banks to small- and medium-sized enterprises," said Dubai-based White & Case partner Debashis Dey, who led the Firm's deal team alongside relationship partner Gavin Weir. "By establishing a multi-bank external servicing platform, the structure will reduce the banks' exposures to, and maximise recoveries of, common customer non-performing loans, provide access to potentially new sources of funding for SMEs, protect the viability and facilitate the sustainability of Greek SMEs, and support the recovery of the Greek economy."

Following an international tender process, Italy-headquartered doBank, which is listed on the Milan Stock Exchange and has nominal assets under management of more than €88 billion as of March 2018, was selected by the Greek banks from in excess of fifteen servicing institutions. doBank will manage recoveries of the common non-performing loans of more than 300 Greek SMEs with a total nominal value of approximately €1.8 billion, by facilitating the search of viable restructuring solutions through increasing cooperativeness from the SMEs, implementing effective and viable restructuring strategies, accelerating and applying decision-making processes and providing access to new sources of financing for sustainable SMEs.

The White & Case team which advised on the transaction was led by partners Debashis Dey (Dubai) and Gavin Weir (London), and included partner Laura Sizemore (London), counsel Claudio Medeossi and associate Adam Gao (both Dubai). The White & Case team worked closely with a team from Greek law firm Koutalidis Law Firm, including partners Nikos Salakas, George Naskaris, Stamatis Drakakakis, Nikitas Fortsakis and Evangelos Courakis, and associate Effie Papoutsi. The banks were also advised by international strategy consulting firm Oliver Wyman.

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