In the life of the stress tests, MPS accelerates the rationalization procedures. From this point of view, the divestment option is accelerating, where the sale of Consum.it, the Sienese group's consumer credit company, is in the final stages. In fact, there are only two candidates left for the acquisition of the MPS subsidiary, Apollo on one side and Deutsche Bak on the other.
The first is an American private equity financial group, which aims to create a financial center in Southern Europe, with the aim of uniting the sectors of insurance policies and consumer credit that need to be relaunched after the crisis. With this in mind, in fact, two weeks ago Apollo took over the good bank of Banco Espirito Santo, Tranquilidade of Novo Banco. Furthermore, for another 15 days, Apollo will be active in Italy for negotiations on the acquisition of the insurance sectors of the Genoese group Carige.
The second, the German giant Deutsche Bank, is perhaps the bank that is investing the most in our country. The growth activities of the Italian branches, the offer of financing, savings, credit cards, mortgages, insurance and daily banking products, all go in this direction. Therefore, the acquisition of Consum.it fits perfectly into the German strategy.
The operation is not too substantial from a numerical point of view: the value is estimated at a few hundred million. The Consum.it survey, however, puts a share of the Italian market on the plate that cannot be underestimated. In fact, it is estimated that the Montepaschi group company holds 3,6% of the market share, in addition to the 5,4 billion in loans recorded up to the end of 2013. What is certain is that the future buyer will have to restore the red of 2013 of 85,4 million euros compared to the previous year's profit of 9,6 million. Consum.it also suffered the effects of the crisis which forced the Siena subsidiary to sell salary-backed loans and payment delegations, for a total of 551 million credits.
