Authors: OLGA KATSIKA, Evangelos Manouvelos

Title: The Marinopoulos S.A. Restructuring Arrangement Scheme: “Too big to fail” or model – case for Greek NPE Management?

Abstract

The steep rise in NPLs, mainly due to the financial crisis that began in 2008 and the inability to repy these loans, is a very important factor in the long and protracted recession of the economy in recent years.

The Greek Business Loans in the vast majority were included in the category of non performing, as in the Greek economic crisis the enterprises were the first to be affected.

Bearing in mind the serious problems of the Greek banks that spread throughout the economy and are mainly due to non- performing loans, their management is a matter of major importance.

For this reason, banks are trying to take precautionary measures to address the issue by implementing various strategies such as renegotiating the terms of the loan agreement with borrowers or introducing lefal reforms to try to recover part of their money as full erasure causes even more damage.

The guide to this effort was the European Central Bank, which, in its implementing regulation, gave the guidelines to all credit institutions subject to it. The paper addresses the strategy, management and operational framework for the successful NPL arrangement.

The case of the reorganization of Marinopoulos was an enblematic case of NPL management in Greece due to the size of the company's exposure and legal complications. After representing the company's profile, we examine the financial stalemate of the company, the application for reorganization under Art. 99 of Law 3588/ 2007, the Restructuring and Transfer Agreement and finally the approval of the resolution plan by the Greek Court. Could the Marinopoulos case be a model- case for Greek NPL Management or is it simply a "too big to fail" case?