A new Special Purpose Acquisition Company (Spac) promoted by top banker Fabrizio Viola (former ceo of Popolare di Vicenza and Mps and now financial institutions senior advisor at Boston Consulting) is preparing to raise about 200 million euros from investors, MF Milano Finanza writes today. Rumors about the project have been running in the last few months (see here a previous post by BeBeez).
The investment target of the new Spac will be a small Italian bank to be transformed in an innovative bank (socalled challenger bank) aiming at supporting Italian SMEs in their business gorwth while finding funding thanks to a fintech platform. This is the same project announced by Spaxs, the Spac promoted by former top banker and Italian ministry Corrado Passera which has just announced its business combination with Banca Interprovinciale (see here a previous post by BeBeez), with the difference that Mr. Viola’s project does not include any involvement in the Npl sector.
Other promoters of the new Spac are said to be Derek Vago, a former Nomura banker; Emanuele Grasso, a partner at PwC with focus on financial services; and Gregorio Gitti, a lawyer with focus on m&a and corporate finance. Placement advisors are Ubs and Barclays.
The Italian Spacs’ panorama is quite crowded at the moment with many new players coming, For example a new Spac is being promoted by Roberto Nicastro (former managing director at Unicredit, former chairman of the four banks rescued by the Italian government or Carichieti, Banca Marche, Banca Etruria and Cariferrara and now senior advisor at Cerberus, see here a previous post by BeBeez). Another one with a special focus on the damage insurance market is coming on the market thanks to Andrea Battista, former ceo of Eurovita insurance company (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Another Spac is then being promoted by asset manager Tages Holding and by its shareholders (Panfilo Tarantelli, Francesco Trapani, Sergio Ascolani, Salvatore Cordaro and Umberto Quadrino) together with Vam Investments (see ahere a previous post by BeBeez). And a fourth one is a Spac with a special focus on renewable energy which is being promoted by the London-based asset manager NextEnergy Capital , which is quite active in Italy in the solar plants sector (see here a prevoius post by BeBeez).
