Global law firm Reed Smith announces that a team led by Panos Katsambas and Thomas D. Gommes advised Invel Real Estate Partners (Invel) on its acquisition of a 66% stake in NBG Pangaea Real Estate Investment Company (Pangaea) from the National Bank of Greece (NBG) for approximately €653 million.
The Reed Smith team advised Invel on the structuring of its investment platform, the vehicle for the Pangaea transaction, and in negotiating the terms of the €125 million investment by investment management firm York Capital. In addition, Reed Smith advised on regulatory, tax and antitrust matters, and coordinated the team of international counsel in Italy, Greece, Netherlands, Guernsey, Luxembourg, and the BVI.
Pangaea, the largest of the Greek REICs, will soon own (after closure of certain planned acquisitions during the first quarter of 2014) a portfolio of 269 commercial real estate properties, valued at over €1.0 billion. The existing portfolio encompasses nearly all of the main office buildings of NBG and its bank branches, spread across various cities in Greece.
The Reed Smith team included partners Edward Miller (competition) and Caspar Fox (tax), and associates Andrew Clark and Stephen Mooney (both corporate).
Reed Smith partner Panos Katsambas commented:
“We’re pleased that we were able to help Invel achieve its goals on this, its first transaction; the complex and international nature of the deal, including negotiating approval from multiple regulatory agencies, was a good match for Reed Smith’s broad jurisdictional and practice area capabilities."
Other firms advising Invel included Karatzas and Partners in Greece, Bonelli Erede Pappalardo in Italy, and Baker & McKenzie in the Netherlands. Sidley Austin advised Pangaea on corporate and M&A aspects.
- ENDS -
Note to Editors:
About Reed Smith
Reed Smith is a global relationship law firm, with more than 1,800 lawyers in 25 offices throughout Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the United States.
About Invel
Founded by Chris Papachristophorou, formerly a Managing Director of Deutsche Bank and Global Head of RREEF Opportunistic Investments, Invel comprises a team of investment professionals with several decades of investment experience across real estate asset classes in Europe. Their combined transaction experience is in excess of €20 billion of real estate gross asset value, having completed numerous landmark transactions with successful results.
Invel capitalises its transactions with investments from various institutional partners, including hedge funds, real estate funds and high net worth individuals/family offices, among others.
About York Capital Management
York Capital Management is a global investment management firm with primary offices in New York, London and Hong Kong. The firm, founded in 1991 by James G. Dinan, manages approximately $19.4 billion employing event-driven investment strategies specializing in arbitrage, special situations and credit opportunities.
About Pangaea
The NBG Pangaea REIC operates as a subsidiary of National Bank of Greece SA as a real estate investment company. Pangaea owns and manages real estate properties comprising nearly all of the main office buildings of NBG and its bank branches, spread across various cities in Greece, but with a significant concentration in Greece’s main regions of Attica and Thessaloniki. The company was founded in 2010 and is based in Athens.
About National Bank of Greece
National Bank of Greece is the oldest bank in Greece and is regarded as an important national asset. In fact, the vast majority of Greek households have accounts with the bank, and NBG has banked over 70% of companies in Greece. Further, NBG is heavily supported/effectively backed by the Greek government. The Hellenic Financial Stability Fund (HFSF), which is backed by the ECB, had underwritten the entire recent NBG issuance (as well as that of the other two largest Greek banks that are raising equity in a similar manner – Alpha and Piraeus Banks).
For further information, please visit www.reedsmith.com or contact Annabelle Price (Branding & Communication Executive EME) on +44 (0)20 3116 3787.