Deadline for non binding offers Nuova Banca delle Marche, Nuova banca Etruria, Nuova Cassa di Risparmio di Chieti, Nuova Cassa di Risparmio di Ferrara expired yesterday. The latter were the four banks which were split last November from bad banks after a rescue by the Italian Government and they are now on sale in an action managed by SocGen as mandated advisor by Bank of Italy.
About ten non binding offers have been delivered yesterday, MF Milano Finanza writes today. The figure is about a half of the expressions of interest which have been previously put forward by other Italian banks, financial institutions and private equity funds. All banks (such as banca Popolare dell’Emilia Romagna, UBI Banca, Cariparma, Banco Popolare and Banca Popolare di Milano) however seem to have retired from the auction leaving room to private equity funds.
Private equity funds which are said to be the most aggressive bidders are Apollo Global Management, Lone Star, Centerbridge, Atlas, AnaCap, Oaktree ( download here the BeBeez report about all private equity deals in the financial sector in Italy, only Italian version). Other subjects are bidding just for some assets. For example Primus group, sfocused on factoring activities and Npl portofolios servicing is interested in buying Cassa di Risparmio di Loreto (Gruppo Banca Marche) only.
Last May 10th the four banks’ chairman Roberto Nicastro said he “had received 26 expressions of interest for the four banks” and that “amon non binding offers will be selected a group which is going ahead with a due diligence and access to a virtual data room. After that a bindg offer will be required in order to close the sale by September 30th” (see here a previous post by BeBeez).
The major bank among the four is Nuova Banca delle Marche with 15.3 billion euros in assets, followed by Nuova Banca Etruria (7.1 billion euros), Nuova Cassa di Risparmio di Ferrara (3.7 billions) and Nuova Cassa di Risparmio di Chieti (3.4 billions).
