After Blackrock‘s turnaround (see here a previous post by BeBeez), the name of Warburg Pincus appears as a possible white knight for Italy’s distressed bank Carige, Il Messaggero writes, stating that there would have been contacts between the fund and the commissioners of the bank and that the latter would have diverted the fund’s representatives to the Treasury Ministry, since at this stage the commissioners are said to have decided to limit themselves to managing the institute, delegating the search for investors to the Authorities and lending banks. That in turn, they say, would have already probed the funds of Värde and Apollo.
All three operators have experience in the financial sector. In particular, Warburg Pincus last October bought Mps Belgium for 42 million euros (see here a previous post by BeBeez), while previously it had participated in the auction for Banca Intermobiliare, as well as JC Flowers (see here a previous post by BeBeez) , but then in October 2017 both funds had been beaten by Attestor (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Always Warburg Pincus, together with Atlas Merchant Capital, Baupost and Centerbrige, had been part of the consortium that in September 2016 had presented to the Atlante fund the offer for Banca Popolare di Vicenza and Veneto Banca (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Moreover the name of Warnurg Pincus was circulated among those of the funds with which the ceo of Mps, Marco Morelli, always in that period was negotiating to find private investors who subscribed the increase of the capital of the bank (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Warburg Pincus in December 2017 announced the closing of the Warburg Pincus Financial Sector fund, a sector-specific fund, at 2.3 billion dollars, exceeding the 1.6 billion target. This fund invests with the Warburg Pincus XII fund of 13.4 billion dollars, which was closed at the end of 2015 (see here a previous post by BeBeez).
As for Värde, in Italy it has invested on various fronts: in distressed assets, for the rescue of the Boscolo group (see here a previous post by BeBeez) and the Bauer hotel in Venice (see here a previous post by BeBeez); in development finance, as in the recent case of Borio Magiarotti (see here a previous post by BeBeez); in junior tranches of Npl securitisations by banks, as in the most recent case of the multi-tranche and multi-originator securitization of a portfolio of non-performing loans originated by a group of banks of the Cassa Centrale Banca group (see here a previous post by BeBeez). This last transaction, as well as a similar precedent of July 2018, was conducted in tandem with Guber Banca, of which Värde is a 33.3% shareholder since March 2017 (see here a previous post by BeBeez).
Finally, Apollo knows the Carige world well, given that in 2014 it bought insurance companies Carige Assicurazioni and Carige Vita Nuova, then renamed Amissima (see here a previous post by BeBeez). In 2015, Carige had, however, sent back Apollo’s proposal for the purchase of Carige’s Npls to the sender and the concurrent subscription of a capital increase to amortize the losses that would have resulted from the sale (see here a previous post by BeBeez). While recently 20% of Bene Assicurazioni entered Apollo’s portfolio, as the stake was owned by Aspen Insurance Holding, which was acquired by the US fund for 2.6 billion dollars last August. The Italian insurance supervision authority (IVASS) in early February gave its green light to the transfer of ownership of those shares of the Italian company to Apollo (see here a previous post by BeBeez). In March 2018 Apollo Global Management had made available 300 million euros to invest in credits towards Italian corporate companies in financial tension or in default through a dedicated investment platform, named Apollo Delos and of which Apeiron Management spa is the exclusive advisor (see here a previous post by BeBeez). This last platform, however, has not announced investments yet.
