Houlihan Lokey Advises Piraeus Bank (2)

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that Piraeus Bank has entered into a strategic joint venture with ORIX Corp. for new lending in the Greek maritime sector. The transaction marks an innovative step for a European bank in enhancing its return on equity and balance sheet velocity through optimising the performance of non-core assets. The transaction closed on 20 February 2020.

Piraeus Bank is the largest Greek systemic bank with a long history in the shipping and maritime industry in Europe, predominantly focussed on Greece.

ORIX is a financial services group that provides innovative products and services to its customers by constantly pursuing new businesses with nearly US$100 billion in operating assets across 37 countries and regions. The company has a long successful history (more than 50 years) in the global maritime sector.

The new joint venture allows Piraeus Bank to retain and expand its market share in the Greek maritime sector—utilising their sector expertise, local industry knowledge, and corporate connectivity—while ORIX contributes their own significant maritime experience and access to capital.

Houlihan Lokey served as the exclusive financial and strategic advisor to Piraeus Bank and worked closely with the company's management in designing the joint venture agreement with ORIX, all while providing strategic and structural advice and mediating document negotiations between both parties.

This transaction marks another milestone in the growing success of Houlihan Lokey's Financial Institutions Portfolio and Capital Advisory team and, in particular, its strategic advisory capabilities for European banks. The team demonstrated its intimate knowledge of bank and lending regulations by structuring a pioneering approach to fee generation and future banking operating models.