Ion, a privately-held financial technology group, is reportedly in negotiations to acquire Italian asset manager and bad loan recovery firm Prelios.
According to local press reports, Ion is offering €750 mln for Prelios which manages around €40 bn of assets. The firm, which provides property services including asset management, investment management, due diligence, real estate advisory, valuation and brokerage, is owned by Lavaredo spa, a subsidiary of Davidson Kempner Capital Management (DK).
According to paper Milano Finanza, the New York-based fund and its advisor Goldman Sachs, are valuing the company at about €1.4 bn, which is nearly double the offer price.
Ion and DK are believed to be discussing a so-called earn out clause, which would see Ion pay part of the price at closing and the rest once the business hits certain financial targets.
DK acquired the vast majority of Prelios' capital in 2017 and subsequently took it private.
Founded abroad by Italian businessman Andrea Pignataro, Ion entered Italy's bad loan recovery market last year when it took over Cerved, a credit data group with a bad loan division.
Led by former Morgan Stanley real estate banker Riccardo Serrini and chaired by Fabrizio Palenzona, previously deputy chairman at UniCredit, Prelios has recently struck a partnership also with UniCredit to handle unlikely-to-pay loans.
