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LONDON, Aug 11 (Reuters) - U.S. hedge fund Davidson Kempner Capital Management (DK) said on Friday it had agreed to sell Prelios to fintech firm ION Group, in a long-awaited deal which two sources said valued the Italian credit manager at 1.35 billion euros ($1.5 billion). DK, which did not disclose the sale price, had been looking for a buyer for years, and held discussions for several months with ION. Dublin-based ION Group was in turn in talks with banks for months to secure funding for the deal. Founded by former Salomon Brothers trader Andrea Pignataro, ION Group provides services of trading, analytics, treasury and risk management for capital and commodity markets. In 2021 in Italy alone, ION bought banking software provider Cedacri for $1.8 billion and acquired Cerved in a deal that valued the credit data and management group at nearly 2 billion euros.

Persons: Salomon, Andrea Pignataro, UniCredit, Intesa, DK, Lazard, Prelios, Mediobanca, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Riccardo Serrini, Valentina Za, Pablo Mayo, David Goodman, Susan Fenton Organizations: Davidson, Capital Management, ION Group, ION ., ION, Reuters, BNP, Banco, Standard Chartered Bank, Mediobanca, UBS, X3, DK, Thomson Locations: ION . Dublin, Italy

☆ ION unlocks financing to finalise Italy's Prelios buy-sources
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

ION has been in talks for months with U.S. investment fund Davidson Kempner to acquire Prelios, a bad loan specialist which DK took private in 2018. While not all of the banks have completed all the necessary internal steps to approve the financing the sources said the finalisation of the deal was imminent. A stalemate over the duration of the financing has been overcome through a 'bridge to bond' structure with a longer maturity than usual, one of the sources said. 'Bridge to bond' financing normally requires the borrower to tap markets within 12-18 months to repay the loan. ION has a single-B credit rating - below the 'BBB' investment grade threshold - by Moody's and S&P Global, according to Refinitiv data.

☆ Softbank-backed doValue to focus on M&A in 2023 - CEO
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 24 (Reuters) - Italy's doValue (DOVA.MI) will focus on merger and acquisitions (M&A) in 2023, as it expects a wave of consolidation in the market of problem loan managers, its chief executive Andrea Mangoni said. "Our priority for this year is M&A," Mangoni told an analyst call. He added that the Verona-based debt management firm will look at deals in Italy and Spain, as both markets are fragmented. In Italy doValue competes with peers such as Elliott-backed Gardant or Prelios, owned by U.S. fund Davidson Kempner Capital Management. DK is currently discussing a possible sale of Prelios to Andrea Pignataro's ION Group, which in 2021 bought credit data and bad loan recovery firm Cerved.

☆ ION discussing earn-out price clause with DK in Prelios deal-sources
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Valentina Za | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The two sources close to the matter said ION and DK were 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. ION and DK declined to comment. Sources had told Reuters earlier this month ION was in discussions with DK over a potential acquisition of Prelios, on which the New York-based fund has put a 1.4 billion euro ($1.44 billion) price tag. Shortly before that, ION had snatched for 1.5 billion euros Italian banking software firm Cedacri. U.S. fund DK first invested in Prelios in 2017, buying other investors to take it private.

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