BPER Banca SpA started the process of securitizing a roughly €2 billion tranche of nonperforming loans, in a bid to improve asset quality and lower bad-loan exposures.
The Italian lender said the senior tranche of the securitization may be backstopped by Italy's Garanzia Cartolarizzazione Sofferenze scheme, or GACS, and carry an investment grade rating, according to a Feb. 28 release.
CEO Alessandro Vandelli noted that the transaction would follow the roughly €1 billion securitization of Banco di Sardegna SpA's bad loans, which is slated to be completed by June-end. At a group level, the NPLs sold by 2018-end will be around €3 billion, he added.
Vandelli added that the transactions, alongside economic improvements and expected results from ordinary NPL management operations, will "significantly help" curb its nonperforming exposures by year-end.
The Italian lender tapped Mediobanca and JPMorgan as advisers and arrangers and law firms Chiomenti and Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe as legal advisers. Prelios Credit Servicing serves as due diligence provider and servicer.
