Alpha Bank Raising $510 mln From Securitized Loans

Greece's Alpha Bank is set to raise about $510 million from securitized shipping loans in one of the first European asset-backed deals in the sector for nearly a year, finance industry and Alpha bank sources said on Friday.

The deal, which is being arranged and financed by Citigroup and bundles together a portfolio of approximately 35 individual shipping loans, will have an average life of two and a half years with a five-year final maturity, industry sources said. A Citi spokesman declined to comment.

"Securitisation transactions are part of Alpha's program. They are a tool to differentiate the bank's funding sources," one Alpha bank source said.

Sources told Reuters in June that Alpha Bank, Greece's fourth-largest lender, planned to securitize about 1 billion euros ($1.24 billion) of shipping loans and expected to raise about 500 million euros in the transaction.

 

Reporting by George Georgiopoulos