The completion of the transaction resulted in Invel Real Estate, an investment firm focusing on real estate and distressed debt opportunities across Europe, becoming the largest ever investor in the Greek real estate market by successfully acquiring from National Bank of Greece a further 32.7% stake in NBG Pangaea REIC, the largest real estate investment company in Greece, for a consideration of €390,000,000, thus increasing its overall shareholding in NBG Pangaea REIC to circa 98.1%. The acquisition of the 32.7% stake followed the exercise of a call option that Invel Real Estate maintained under a shareholders’ agreement with National Bank of Greece in respect of NBG Pangaea REIC.
To achieve completion of the acquisition within the deadline of the call option exercise period, Invel Real Estate received acquisition financing support from Piraeus Bank, the European Bank Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and two Cypriot credit institutions, namely Astro Bank and Hellenic Bank through a syndicated secured term loan facility amounting to €159,727,010 with security assets expanding to 3 different jurisdictions, including Greece.
Piraeus Securities acted as broker for the shares acquisition, whilst Piraeus Bank acted as custodian of Invel’s securities account, Account Bank, Global Coordinator and Mandated Lead Arranger.
We are proud of the key role of our finance team, in advising Piraeus Bank (in its aforementioned capacities), EBRD and the other syndicate members in connection with the structuring, drafting and negotiation of the financing documentation, as well as in the completion of a lenders’ due diligence on NBG Pangaea REIC and the implementation of the shares’ acquisition simultaneously with the creation of a financial collateral on the shares in favor of Piraeus Bank on behalf of the syndicate members.
The Zepos & Yannopoulos team included Finance & Capital Markets partner Elena Papachristou, senior associate Paris Tzoumas and associates Alexis Kontogiannis and Alexandros Georgiou. Partner Alex Karopoulos advised on tax matters.