In April 2022, NBG sold 90.01% of Ethniki Insurance to CVC’s Fund VII for €233 million. The transaction was structured through the sale of shares to Ethniki Holdings S.à r.l., a newly created CVC subsidiary based in Luxembourg. At the same time, NBG retained a 9.99% stake in Ethniki Holdings, with its shares valued at €25.9 million—bringing the total purchase price to €259 million.
What was not widely known until now is that the sale involved exceptionally high advisory and legal fees. These fees, fully acknowledged by NBG CEO Pavlos Mylonas and CVC CEO Rob Lucas, totaled €17.7 million—€11 million for advisory services and €6.7 million for legal counsel. This figure represents a striking 7% of the total transaction value.
Such fees are unusually high for a deal of this nature. For context, if Ethniki Insurance had been listed on the stock exchange via an Initial Public Offering (IPO), underwriting and advisory fees would have been roughly the same percentage—meaning the sale to CVC incurred costs equivalent to those of taking a company public.
Where exactly this money went remains an open question—one that the leadership of NBG, as the seller and a 9.99% shareholder in Ethniki Holdings, may need to answer.
If a similar fee structure were applied to the current sale of 70% of Ethniki Insurance to Piraeus Bank for €469 million, the additional advisory and legal costs could reach €32.8 million—a significant financial burden.
However, these high fees may not be the only concerning aspect of the 2022 transaction. According to sources, additional irregularities with possible regulatory implications may soon come to light.
