Milan-based UniCredit, Italy’s biggest bank by assets, has revealed plans to sell between 25% and 35% of its online banking unit Fineco on the stock market.
"The aim is to introduce Fineco to people abroad, create value and re-invest a large part of the proceeds into growing the company," said Federico Ghizzoni, the bank’s chief executive officer.
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According to Ghizzoni, the operation should happen before the end of July. The listing would then become the second public share sale by a financial company on the Milan-based stock exchange Borsa Italiana this year, following asset manager Anima Holding.
UniCredit is a commercial financial institution with an international network deployed in 17 European countries and 50 markets, with about 9,000 branches and more than 148,000 employees.
Fineco, founded in 1999, is UniCredit’s direct banking arm and has a customer base of 900,000 and around 40bn ($55.5bn) in total assets.
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