doBank decides to acquire 100% of Italfondiario
doBank decides to acquire 100% of Italfondiario
The operation will lead to the creation of the largest independent Italian servicer specialising in the management of non-performing loans for the banking system.
The Board of Directors of doBank, the leading Italian bank in the management and recovery of the non-performing loans and jointly owned by Eurocastle Investment Limited and Fortress Investment Group managed fund ("Fortress"), announces that doBank has decided to acquire 100% of the share capital of Italfondiario S.p.A. ("Italfondiario"), the second largest independent loan management company specialising in the management and recovery of non-performing loans in Italy. The majority ownership is currently held by Fortress managed funds. The transaction, which is subject to approval by the Bank of Italy, is part of a broader plan to expand and rationalise doBank in Italy and is aimed at ensuring it a leadership position in the field of integrated loan management.
doBank's intention is keep Italfondario's identity and loan management activities separate, further enhancing the existing complementarity of the skills and professionalism of both companies, while at the same time taking advantage of the opportunity to create significant synergies and economies of scale in ancillary services, which would be useful in terms of supporting the Group's future growth plans. Through this integration, doBank intends to avail itself of the existing skills within Italfondiario and to focus on market opportunities in its relationships with the large institutional investors and in the management of large volumes, which will grant the bank access to a broader market.
doBank and Italfondiario Chairman Giovanni Castellaneta points out that "these two excellent companies, as testified by the respective top European ratings assigned to them by organisations like Fitch and S&P, and their positions as market leaders with a managed non-performing loan portfolio of approx. one hundred billion Euro, could, as part of a "new" single Banking Group, introduce a number of important synergies and economies of scale that will make them even more efficient and further enhance the group profile as the top independent servicer to the banking system".
