We are delighted to announce that we acted for Alpha Bank as Seller in Project Galaxy, the second largest NPE securitisation in Europe for a €10.81 billion GBV NPE portfolio.
Earlier today, 22 February 2021, Alpha Bank announced that it entered into a final agreement with certain entities managed and advised by Davidson Kempner Capital Management LP in relation to: (a) the sale of 80% of its loan servicing subsidiary Cepal Holdings Single Member S.A. (New CEPAL), and (b) the sale of 51% of the mezzanine and junior notes of each of the four securitisations comprising Project Galaxy.
We acted for Alpha Bank since the very inception of Project Galaxy in all aspects spanning from structuring, transaction documentation drafting, and negotiation, to HAPS and SRT submissions and tender process support; we are pleased to see our client reaching this critical milestone towards achieving its broader strategic transformation plan in a record time of 8 months from launch of the tender process, taking into account the unprecedented circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic that followed.
The Zepos & Yannopoulos team was led by partners Christina Papanikolopoulou and Kely Pesketzi and assisted by associates Niki Ignatidi and Athina Palli and other members of our Finance & Capital Markets practice group; partner Elena Papachristou advised on the regulatory aspects of the deal; tax partners Maria Zoupa, Daphne Cozonis and Alex Karopoulos took upon the tax advice for the transaction assisted by Georgia Voutsa senior director of our accounting business unit.