Alpha Bank acquires Cepal as balance sheet

The Greek-based Alpha Bank will be taking over Cepal, a loan servicing company, in order to accelerate the speed at which it's able to get rid of €10bn in bad debt. Alpha already had a 40 percent stake in the company, but it's concluded a deal with Centerbridge that's being seen as a precursor to selling the company off to investors.

The deal is part of a wider attempt by the bank to offload around €7.6bn in non-performing retail loans and another €3bn in corporate debt. Taken together, the bad debt is known as the Galaxy portfolio and Alpha is keen to be rid of it in order to clean up its balance sheet.