By Giovanni Legorano
MILAN-- Assicurazioni Generali SpA said Wednesday that it has
entered into exclusive talks to sell its Swiss private bank BSI to
Banco BTG Pactual.
"Generali has granted exclusivity to Banco BTG Pactual to
conduct negotiations relating to the potential acquisition of the
entire share capital of BSI," the insurer, which is Europe's third
largest, said in a statement.
Since Mario Greco took the helm of Generali in August 2012, the
company sold a number of businesses or stakes in companies,
including part of its shares in Banca Generali and a U.S.-based
reinsurance business. It also announced plans to shed investments
in Italian companies, such as Telecom Italia.
However, Generali has struggled to sell BSI after almost two
years. In the last months, Mr. Greco often said talks on the sale
of BSI were ongoing and that he wanted to sell it only at an
adequate price and that this sales process was complicated.
Increasing international pressure, especially from the U.S.,
aimed at digging out undeclared assets from Swiss bank accounts has
put pressure on the price of businesses like BSI, bankers and
industry experts say.
At the same time, those banks could run the risk of paying
penalties in the future because of the increasing crackdown on tax
evasion and money laundering.
Investment bankers say all these factors make it very hard to
value and sell the business.
Write to Giovanni Legorano at giovanni.legorano@wsj.com
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