ION Group, GIC in 1.86b euro bid for Italian credit group

Rome

FINTECH firm Ion Group and Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC said on Tuesday that they would launch an offer for all of Italian credit group Cerved at 9.50 euros (S$15.21) per share, valuing it at 1.86 billion euros.

Dublin-based Ion, led by Italian businessman Andrea Pignataro, has been on an acquisition spree in recent years.

Last week it reached a deal to buy Italian banking software provider Cedacri for about 1.5 billion euros.

In 2019 it took a majority stake in financial news company Acuris for £1.35 billion (S$2.52 billion) and a year earlier bought trading software firm Fidessa for £1.5 billion.

The bid will be made through investment vehicle Castor, controlled by Fermion Investment Group, in which Ion holds a 85.75 per cent share, GIC 10 per cent, and institutional investors the remaining 4.25 per cent, a filing to the Milan Stock Exchange showed.

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The price offered by Castor represents a 34.9 per cent premium on March 5's closing share price and a 43 per cent premium on the share's average price over the last 12 months, the filing showed.

Cerved shares closed up 14.6 per cent to 8.02 euros on March 8, after the Italian credit group confirmed sale talks of its debt collection arm on March 7.

The offer is conditional on the bidders securing at least 90 per cent of the company's shares. Cerved will be delisted if the offer is successful, Castor said.

In the statement, the bidders said they planned to support Cerved's current business plan.

US private equity firm Advent made a bid approach in early 2019 to buy the entire share capital of Cerved and take it private in a deal worth about 1.85 billion euros. Negotiations fell through after media reports revealed that discussions were under way and pushed up Cerved's share price. REUTERS