BPER Banca has started a process for the possible sale of its debt collection business. New chief executive Piero Montani is working on a new business plan for Italy’s fifth-biggest bank, according to four sources familiar with the matter.
BPER is the last of Italy’s major banks to fully retain its debt-servicing business, and the sale would bring a coveted asset to the market.
Two of the sources said that the process has attracted a lot of interest and a large number of stakeholders intend to access the data room to study the company’s financial figures.
Leading Italian banks like UniCredit, Intesa Sanpaolo and Banco BPM have divested all or part of their debt collection businesses in recent years, in lucrative deals that have helped them offset the cost of winding down large portfolios of bad debts.
Debt collection businesses are usually sold along with contracts for managing new delinquent loans. These contracts ensure buyers a steady flow of fees in the years to come.
At the end of last year, BPER held €4.03 billion in impaired loans, which is just over 5% of the total. For comparison: the rate at UniCredit was 3.6% and at Intesa 3.2%.
BPER’s competitor Banco BPM agreed to sell 70% of its collections unit to Elliott-backed Credito Fondiario in 2018, valued at €143 million.
As part of the deal, 7.8 billion euros in non-performing loans were sold.
Credito Fondiario, which has since renamed its non-performing loans business Gardant, later also bought the non-performing loans division of Banca Carige, a smaller, troubled lender in the process of being acquired by BPER.
