Milbank LLP has advised the underwriters on the divestment by the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund (“HFSF”) of a 10% stake, out of its total 18.39% stake, in National Bank of Greece S.A. (“NBG”) through a fully marketed offering, raising gross proceeds of approximately €690.7 million.
NBG was founded in 1841 and is one of the four systemic banks in Greece. It maintains a prominent position in Greece’s financial services sector and provides banking services to a substantial portion of Greece’s population, serving, as of June 30, 2024, 5.6 million active customers. Since 2013, the HFSF has held a substantial stake in the share capital of NBG (as high as 84.39% in 2013), which it has been gradually reducing through divestments. In November 2023, the HFSF divested a 22% stake in the share capital of NBG, through a fully marketed offering, which reduced its shareholding to 18.39%. Milbank also advised the underwriters on that transaction, which constituted one of the largest capital markets privatisation transactions in Europe and the largest secondary placement in Greece since 2005.
The Milbank team was led by Corporate Finance & Securities partners David Dixter and Apostolos Gkoutzinis and associates Alexia Pimbli and Rishi Ray, and included legal assistants Alexander Hamilton and Olga Maria Efstathiou. The team also had assistance from US Tax partner Eschi Rahimi-Laridjani and special counsel Craig Cohen and UK Tax partner Russell Jacobs and associate Freddy Pilkington.
