Prelios, Fortress bid for Italian banks' NPL platforms

Italian listed property services group Prelios has teamed up with Fortress Group to launch a bid for Unicredit Credit Management Bank, the lender's NPL management platform, as well as for Banco Popolare's bad bank, Release.

Prelios Credit Servicing, the manager of over €8 bn of loans, is jointly bidding with Fortress for the two banks' businesses as part of plans to grow in the services sector.

Banco Popolare's Release owns over €3.2 bn of non performing loans and properties, while UCMB services €53 bn of loans.

Prelios Credit Servicing, headed by Riccardo Serrini, has signed 19 new mandates with banks during 2013 for a total amount of over €500 mln.

Prelios said last week it had signed a memorandum of understanding with New York-based Fortress for the integration of their real estate asset management and NPL platforms. Fortress is the majority shareholder of Italian asset manager Torre Sgr as well as Italfondiario, the country’s largest NPL-management company with €36.1 bn of assets under management.

Under the memorandum of understanding signed last week, the companies are studying the merger between asset managers Prelios Sgr and Torre Sgr as well as between their respective NPL platforms, Prelios Credit Servicing and Italfondiario.

Prelios had been in contact with the UK arm of US asset manager Fortress Investment Group since autumn 2012, when the group was believed to have put €100 mln on the table to strengthen Prelios' capital structure. The offer was, however, outbid by local investment firm Feidos which later on took a stake in the company as part of a major capital injection.

Despite a recent capital increase, Prelios may need a new capital injection in the near future, as it continues to struggle with a difficult market at home. The company saw consolidated revenues shrink to €73 mln in 2013 from €86 mln in 2012. Its net loss widened to €333 mln last year, from a loss of €242 mln a year earlier.