Disposal of a non performing loans portfolio to Fortress

Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena S.p.A. (“BMPS”) signed today a binding agreement for the disposal pro soluto of a non performing loan portfolio to a securitization vehicle financed by affiliates of Fortress Investment Group LLC.

The portfolio is composed of almost 4k borrowers with a total book value, gross of provisions, of approx. €380mn. The portfolio consists of secured and unsecured medium / long term loans. Impact of the disposal on BMPS’ profit and loss and balance sheet is negligible, while administrative and management benefits would be significant in light of numerosity of the portfolio being sold.

Taking into account also the previous transaction of the same nature concluded last June, during 2014 BMPS disposed of a total of approx. 16k non performing files with a total book value, gross of provisions, of almost €1bn. These transactions are part of a wider strategy aiming at a more proactive management of its NPLs and is consistent with what BMPS has recently announced at the time of the approval of its Capital Plan.

Closing of the transaction is expected before 31 December 2014.