Banca Carige’s board decided to enter exclusive talks with U.S. investment fund Apollo Management Holdings for the sale of its two insurance units, the Italian mid-sized lender said in a statement on Thursday (download here the press release).
Carige, one of 15 Italian banks seeking to pass a regulatory health check of lenders across the euro zone, has long been trying to sell its Carige Vita Nuova and Carige Assicurazioni units to shore up its capital base.
The bank recently completed an 800 million euro share sale in a bid to push its Common Equity Tier 1 capital above a minimum 8 percent threshold set by the European Central Bank for banks in its review of the sector.
Apollo’s proposal has been preferred to the one by German insurer group Talanx, which is already active in Italy with its subsidiary Hdi. The deal is valued around 400 million euros, that is the value given to the two assets in Carige’s balance sheet.
Banca Carige was advised in the deal by Mediobanca and Leonardo&Co.on the financial side and by Legance on the leagl side.
