By George Georgiopoulos
ATHENS (Reuters) - A deal to sell National Bank of Greece's insurance unit to U.S. and Dutch investors looked as though it might unravel after a legal row erupted between the two buyers on Wednesday.
U.S. investor Calamos Family Partners (CFP) said in an emailed statement it had filed a lawsuit in the U.S. against Dutch EXIN Financial Services Holdings for defaulting on loans.
Calamos Investments and EXIN Partners, a Netherlands-based investor focused on insurance, reinsurance and asset management, had agreed last year to acquire 75 percent of the National Bank of Greece's (AT:NBGr) insurance unit - National Insurance - for 718 million euros ($889 million).
The agreement was signed in June but the buyers have yet to notify regulators at Greece's central bank of key details on the acquisition.
"The Bank of Greece has not received the folder containing the final shareholding structure of the buying group," a senior central bank official told Reuters, declining to be named. "We are expecting EXIN to do so in the next days."
The investment was supposed to be concluded by the end of March according to the terms of the deal.
National Bank of Greece was not immediately available for comment. Under the deal, National Bank was to keep a 25 percent stake in the insurance unit.
EXIN was not immediately available for comment.
In an emailed statement, Calamos Family Partners (CFP) said it was seeking immediate repayment of more than $41 million in principal, plus interest, owed to them by EXIN under a series of loan agreements. The full amount was payable on December 31 2017, and was now in default.
It said EXIN has repeatedly failed to provide requested financial statements and other financial, accounting and regulatory information and records as required by the applicable loan agreements. In addition, the lawsuit seeks a full accounting of when and how EXIN used the borrowed funds.
CFP said they were also sending a cease and desist letter to EXIN instructing it to remove any reference to Calamos or affiliated entities. There was no specific reference in the email to the Greek deal. On Wednesday morning EXIN's website still had Calamos listed under its partner section.
National Bank of Greece had put its insurance subsidiary up for sale as part of a restructuring plan approved by the European Union to exit non-banking operations and focus on core banking.