MILAN (Thomson Financial) - U.S. private equity fund JC Flowers & Co. LLC is
interested in acquiring the Italian leasing and factoring company Banca Italease
SpA, the daily Il Sole 24 Ore reported, without citing sources.
The paper said German cooperative bank DZ Bank already is in talks to buy
Italease but it cannot be ruled out that DZ Bank and JC Flowers join forces,
given the dimensions of Italease, which has a market capitalisation of about 1.2
billion euros.
JC Flower already is active in the leasing business, mainly in boats, in
northern Europe and Germany, it said.
At Italease's shareholders' meeting in mid-April, chairman Lino Benassi said
the company had received several expressions of interest and that it would
evaluate proposals in the next few weeks or months.
Italease's largest shareholder is Banco Popolare, with a 30.72 percent
stake.
danilo.masoni@thomsonreuters.com
dm/vs
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