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MILAN, July 17 (Reuters) – Shares in Banco BPM (BAMI.MI) rose 1.7% on Monday after Italy’s No.3 bank said late on Friday it would sell 71.6% of its card and shopowner payments operations to private equity fund FSI for 500 million euros ($561 million) in cash and shares.
Banco BPM said it would receive an initial cash payment of 200 million euros as well as a 28.6% stake in the new payments venture it is setting up with FSI, indicating its holding would be worth 300 million euros.
An earn-out mechanism could bring the overall value of the sale to 600 million euros, the companies said.
The transaction values the new joint-venture at around 15 times its core profit, people familiar with the deal said. That is almost twice the valuation multiple at which market leader Nexi (NEXII.MI) trades.
($1 = 0.8910 euros)
(This story has been refiled to add the dropped word ‘after’ in paragraph 1)
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