Four offers for 100% of Italy’s payment services bank Istituto Centrale delle Banche Popolari (icbpi) have been deposited last Monday March 23rd on the desk of advisors Mediobanca and Equita.
Bidders are just private equity firms. More in detail they are: consortium made by US private equity firms Advent and Bain Capital together with Italy’s Clessidra; paneuropean operator Permira allied with CVC Capital Partners; BC Partners together with Cinven; while  Hellman&Friedman fund is racing all by itself. Lone Star and Apax Partners too have been interested in the deal but they did not put forward and offer in the end.
The next step will be then the dataroom opening which is expected soon after Easter while the whole sale process is expected to end by next June, Credito Valtellinese’s ceo Miro Fiordi said some days ago (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Credito Valtellinese (Creval) is the major shareholder in Icbpi with a 20.4% stake, followed by other Italy’s cooperative banks Banco Popolare (16%), Banca Popolare di Vicenza and Veneto Banca (about 10% each) and  Banca Popolare dell’Emilia Romagna (8.7%).
