Värde Partners Acquires Stake in Guber, Sees Significant Opportunity in Management of Italy’s Non-Performing Loans

BRESCIA, ITALY – Värde Partners, the $12 billion global alternative investment firm, today announced its acquisition of a 33% share of Guber, the independent Italian servicer with over 25 years of experience managing secured and unsecured credits in the Italian market. Working with the founders of the company, Värde intends to support the continued growth of the business at a time of significant non-performing loan volumes in the country. Guber will remain an independent company and continue to work with its diverse portfolio of clients, including many of the key Italian financial institutions as well as buyers of non-performing exposures in the secondary market.

Guber is currently the 3rd largest loan servicer in Italy with approximately €7bn of assets under management, with close to 80% of those assets generated from Italian financial institutions. A vast majority of the assets are concentrated in the North and Centre regions of Italy. The company has approximately 160 employees who deploy a range of propriety systems and technology to maximize recovery for its clients.

“We believe that there will be a continued desire among Italian financial institutions to externalise servicing of non and sub-performing exposures. This represents a tremendous opportunity for a best-in-class operator with a deep history of working with these institutions to resolve problems within their loan books,” said Francisco Milone, Senior Managing Director of Värde. “We believe that Guber is clearly one such operator and we see significant growth potential with them,” he continued.

Luca Malighetti, Managing Director in Värde’s Milan office added, “Increasingly, real estate expertise will be required as Italy works through its well-noted and historic issues around non-performing exposures, many of which are collateralized by real estate. This is an area in which Värde has demonstrated know-how.”

Francesco Guarneri the CEO of Guber said, “Värde has a strong reputation for successfully building businesses focused on servicing and other related activities. We are excited by the growth plans we have developed with them. I believe Guber’s business model is uniquely poised to address the current and developing needs of participants in the Italian non-performing loan markets.”

PWC and Studio Frau acted as advisors for Värde. Gotha Advisory, Studio Renoldi, Studio Legale Baldi & Partners advised Guber.

About Värde Partners:
Värde Partners is a $12 billion global alternative investment firm that employs a credit-oriented, value-based approach to investing across a broad array of geographies, segments and asset types, including real estate, corporate credit, mortgages, specialty finance, transportation and infrastructure. The firm sponsors and manages a family of private investment funds with a global investor base that includes foundations and endowments, pension plans, insurance companies, other institutional investors and private clients. Now in its third decade, Värde employs 250 people with main offices in Minneapolis, London and Singapore and additional offices around the world.

About Guber:
Guber is one of the most experienced independent loan servicers in Italy, operating in the country since 1991. The Company specialises in the management and collection of NPL portfolios mainly for banks: Deutsche Bank (for which it managed more than €1bn of loans), UniCredit, Intesa San Paolo. It also works for investment funds and corporate clients. The Company has 160 employees and its operations are supported by 13 debt collection agencies and 280 external lawyers.