Italy's Banca Ifis buys 2.8 billion euros of unsecured loans from Cerberus

MILAN (Reuters) -Italy's Banca Ifis said on Wednesday that it had bought 2.8 billion euros ($3.24 billion) of unsecured loans from U.S. financial investor Cerberus, its biggest-ever acquisition of non-performing loans (NPLs).

With the transaction, the bank said it had reached its target of purchasing some 3 billion euros in NPLs by 2021 ahead of schedule.

Banca Ifis, whose proprietary portfolio now amounts to 21.8 billion euros, said the purchase was made of some 300,000 unsecured loans, consisting mainly of consumer credit loans originating from Italian banks and financial institutions.

In terms of portfolio size, the transaction represents the most significant direct sale of NPLs in 2021 in Italy, in the primary as well as secondary markets, the bank said.

The deal was first reported by Italian financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore.

($1 = 0.8636 euros)

(Reporting by Maria Pia Quaglia; Editing by Ramakrishnan M.)