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Sale of Greek bank's insurance unit in doubt following legal row between buyers

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Sale of Greek bank's insurance unit in doubt following legal row between buyers

An agreement by National Bank of Greece SA to sell 75% of wholly owned insurance unit Ethniki Hellenic General Insurance Co. SA to a consortium of U.S. firm Calamos Investments LLC and Netherlands-based EXIN Financial Services Holding BV is in doubt, following a legal row between the two buyers, Reuters reported.

Calamos Family Partners said in an emailed statement that it sued EXIN for defaulting on loans, according to the newswire. The U.S. investor said it was seeking immediate repayment from the Dutch firm of more than $41 million in principal, plus interest, under a series of loan agreements that were payable Dec. 31, 2017.

The €718.3 million transaction, which was agreed in June 2017, was supposed to be concluded by the end of March, according to the terms of the deal. Yet both Calamos Investments and EXIN have yet to inform the Bank of Greece SA of key details, Reuters said.

A senior central bank official told the newswire that the regulator has not received a folder containing the final shareholding structure of the buying group, while it expects EXIN to submit the folder "in the next days."

Meanwhile, the union of Ethniki Hellenic General Insurance has called on National Bank of Greece to cancel the sale agreement and for the Greek central bank to keep the subsidiary "out of business games," according to the Reuters report.