For more than a decade, Europe’s non-performing loan market tended to be discussed country by country. Today, institutional investors increasingly look across Greece, CEE and the Balkans as a connected opportunity set — while recognising that successful execution remains intensely local.
From national clean-ups to regional credit strategies.
There was the Greek NPL problem. The Romanian market. The Croatian market. And the restructuring of banking systems across Central and Eastern Europe.
But the investment question is changing. It is no longer simply where the next large portfolio sale will take place. It is increasingly where capital, servicing expertise and restructuring capability can be deployed across an entire region.
APS Holding provides a useful case study in that transition. Founded in Prague in 2004, APS has developed into an alternative asset-management and distressed-credit platform with a footprint spanning Central and Southeastern Europe. APS reports assets under advisement with a nominal value exceeding €12.5 billion and around 140 closed transactions.
Its European presence includes Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. That geographical spread matters because the individual credit markets have developed at different speeds, but many of the underlying investment themes are increasingly connected.
Greece became an important part of the APS story.
APS’s move into Greece was significant. In 2018, the group launched Greek operations through the acquisition of a Piraeus Bank NPL portfolio with a nominal value exceeding €2.3 billion — at the time the largest transaction in APS’s history.
In December 2022, APS closed the acquisition of a predominantly secured corporate and SME NPL portfolio in Greece with a nominal value of more than €1 billion, acquired from Bain Capital Special Situations. The underlying collateral included more than 3,000 assets, mainly commercial and residential property, industrial assets, hotels and land.
These are not simply large numbers. They show how Greece’s credit market has evolved beyond bank balance-sheet clean-up into an environment increasingly connected to real assets, corporate restructuring, SME recovery and active asset management.
Greece and CEE increasingly belong in the same investment conversation.
APS’s RHAPSODY investment vehicles make that regional connection visible. RHAPSODY strategies target alternative assets — principally non-performing loans and real estate — across Central and Southeastern Europe.
APS reports significant RHAPSODY exposure across markets including Romania, Greece, Hungary, Croatia and Bulgaria. RHAPSODY II similarly has its largest concentration in Romania, followed by Greece, Poland, Bulgaria and Hungary.
The geographical mandate of RHAPSODY IV extends across Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Cyprus, Hungary, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The regional thesis.
Greece is no longer sitting at the edge of a Central European credit strategy. It is increasingly part of the same investment map. Capital can compare opportunities across borders, while local teams provide the legal, servicing, collateral and borrower knowledge needed to execute.
The Balkans bring a different type of opportunity.
The Balkan markets should not be treated as one homogeneous investment region. Banking systems, insolvency regimes, judicial processes, real-estate liquidity and the depth of institutional capital differ materially between countries.
Those differences are precisely why regional platforms can have an advantage. APS expanded through markets including Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia and Serbia before deepening its presence in Greece and other Southeastern European jurisdictions, creating institutional knowledge of how distressed assets behave across multiple legal and economic environments.
The next cycle may not be defined by another wave of enormous banking clean-ups. It may involve a more fragmented mixture of corporate restructurings, secured single-name credits, real-estate-backed distress, smaller NPL portfolios, secondary portfolio trades, special-situations financing and direct lending.
Distressed debt is moving closer to private credit.
One of the most interesting developments is the gradual convergence between traditional NPL investing and private credit. A borrower may begin as a distressed exposure, but the best economic outcome can involve restructuring that debt, providing new financing, repositioning collateral or bringing in a new investor.
APS’s current pipeline illustrates the scale of the opportunity. In July 2026, the company said it was monitoring 42 distressed-credit portfolios with a combined nominal value of approximately €3.3 billion.
APS has also disclosed plans for a Luxembourg-based APS Special Opportunities Fund, currently in formation, targeting approximately €300 million, with a strategy encompassing non-performing loans, special situations and direct lending.
This evolution suggests the boundary between “distressed debt investor” and “private-credit investor” is becoming increasingly blurred. The opportunity is increasingly about capital solutions, not simply debt collection.
EBRD backing reinforces the regional thesis.
Institutional capital is reinforcing that shift. In 2026, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development announced an investment of up to €75 million in an NPL Co-Investment Programme with APS.
The programme is intended to acquire and resolve NPL portfolios and other distressed assets, with an initial focus on Central and Eastern Europe. The broader logic is important: functioning secondary credit markets allow banks to remove problematic exposures, release capital and redirect lending toward productive parts of the economy.
That was one of the major lessons from Greece. It is equally relevant across CEE and Southeast Europe.
Greece offers lessons for the wider region.
Greece’s credit transformation has created an enormous body of practical experience. Investors learned to price portfolios in uncertain environments. Servicers built industrial-scale operations. Banks executed complex securitisations. Legal and advisory firms developed restructuring expertise. Technology providers learned to manage millions of individual credit decisions.
Most importantly, international investors learned that successful recovery ultimately depends upon local execution.
Not every Balkan market will experience Greece’s NPL cycle — nor should it. But the infrastructure and expertise created during that cycle can now be deployed across a much broader range of situations.
Capital may be regional. Execution remains local.
There is a useful paradox at the centre of this strategy. Credit markets are becoming more international. Capital can move from London, Luxembourg or Prague into Athens, Bucharest, Sofia, Zagreb or Belgrade, and investment committees can compare opportunities across several countries simultaneously.
But a Romanian corporate restructuring is not a Greek restructuring. A secured Croatian loan does not behave exactly like a Bulgarian one. The legal environment, borrower culture, collateral market and enforcement process remain specific to each jurisdiction.
The strongest regional platforms therefore need to combine institutional capital with local knowledge. That combination may become one of the defining characteristics of the next CEE and Balkan credit cycle.
Why Athens is becoming a regional meeting point.
This is why the conversation around Greece increasingly extends beyond Greece itself.
The DDC Athens Credit & Special Situations Forum 2026, taking place on 12–13 November 2026, is deliberately focused not only on the Greek market but on Greece, Cyprus, the Balkans and Southeast Europe.
Private credit, NPLs, restructuring, real estate and special situations will sit at the centre of that discussion. For investors with genuinely regional strategies, Athens is therefore an increasingly logical meeting point: Greece provides deep experience in distressed-credit resolution, the Balkans provide markets at different stages of development, and CEE provides increasingly sophisticated investment and asset-management infrastructure.
APS Holding’s evolution from a Central European NPL specialist into a regional alternative asset-management and special-situations platform reflects that change particularly clearly.
The next opportunity in European credit may not belong to one country. It may belong to investors capable of connecting opportunities across an entire region — while still understanding what makes every local market different.
APS Holding, Greece, CEE and the Balkans: quick answers.
What is APS Holding’s role in Greece?
APS entered Greece in 2018 through the acquisition of a Piraeus Bank NPL portfolio exceeding €2.3 billion. In December 2022, APS closed the acquisition of a predominantly secured corporate and SME NPL portfolio in Greece with a nominal value of more than €1 billion from Bain Capital Special Situations.
How does APS connect Greece with CEE and the Balkans?
APS operates a regional investment and servicing platform across Central and Southeastern Europe. Its RHAPSODY vehicles have exposure across markets including Romania, Greece, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary and other CEE and Balkan jurisdictions.
Has the APS Special Opportunities Fund launched?
No. APS describes the Luxembourg-based APS Special Opportunities Fund as currently in formation. APS has disclosed plans for the fund to target approximately €300 million across non-performing loans, special situations and direct lending.
What is the EBRD partnership with APS?
In 2026, the EBRD announced an investment of up to €75 million in an NPL Co-Investment Programme with APS focused on acquiring and resolving non-performing loans and other distressed assets, initially across Central and Eastern Europe.
Continue the conversation in Athens.
DDC Athens Credit & Special Situations Forum 2026
12–13 November 2026 | Athens, Greece
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Sources.
APS Holding — company overview and regional platform
APS Holding — history and entry into Greece
APS Holding — Greek corporate and SME portfolio acquisition from Bain Capital Special Situations
APS Holding — RHAPSODY
APS Holding — RHAPSODY II
APS Holding — RHAPSODY IV
APS Holding — €3.3bn distressed-debt pipeline, July 2026
APS Holding — APS Special Opportunities Fund, currently in formation
EBRD — NPL Co-Investment Programme with APS, 2026
DDC — Athens Credit & Special Situations Forum 2026