UniCredit to sell $3.5bn of loans in cleanup

Bloomberg

UniCredit SpA is selling at least 3 billion euros ($3.5 billion) of non-performing loans in different deals, while extending a partnership to manage troubled corporate debt as part of its cleanup strategy, according to people with knowledge of matter.
The Italian bank is reviewing final offers for 700 million euros of unsecured loans in a disposal project dubbed Narciso and plans to finalise the sale next month, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. The lender is also seeking offers for two portfolios known as Torino and Milano, which jointly amount to about 1.8 billion euros, the people said.
The Milano package consists of about 800 million euros of secured debt from small- and medium-sized firms, while the Torino portfolio includes about 1 billion euros of mostly unsecured loans. Offers are due next month. The bank is also selling about 500 million euros of soured debt in small packages or single-name, large loans made to companies whose strength has since deteriorated, the people said.
Chief Executive Officer Jean Pierre Mustier has made the balance-sheet cle-anup a pillar of his tenure. Earlier this year, the bank closed the biggest disposal of bad loans in Italian history, selling 17.7 billion euros worth to investors. UniCredit is targeting gross non-performing exposures of 37.9 billion euros at the end of 2019, down from 44.6 billion euros at the end of March.