Société Générale is studying a sale of its Italian consumer finance subsidiary Fiditalia, active in Italy for 35 years, Il Sole 24 Ore worte yesterday. Soc Gen is said to be looking for an industrial partner but a private equity acquiror is also a possibility.
This seems to be the right time for SocGen to sell Fiditalia as the company has just come out from rather difficult times and is closing year 2016 with a net profit after 3 years of losses. Fiditalia recorded 1.6 million euros in net losses in 2015 when it issued 1,28 billion euros in financing (+6.3% from 2014), while it had posted a 29.6 million euros net loss in 2014 and -40.2 million euros in 2013.
Consumer finance sector in Italy has seen some deals coming out over the last year but none of them has been closed. PrestiNuova, a subsidiary of Banca Popolare di Vicenza has been on sale since last February (see here a previous post by BeBeez) while sales of both Creditis from Carige bank (see here a previous post by BeBeez) and Accedo, former Intesa Personal Finance (see here a previous Report of financial private equity deals in Italy by BeBeez) are now in stand by mode. As well as it seems to be for the sale of BBVA Finanzia by banco Bilbao Vizcaya (see here a previous post by BeBeez).
