Interested parties were officially invited on 10 Feb to tender for Italian glassware/container producer Bormioli. It has been rumoured for some time that Banca Popolare Italiana, indirect owner. was seeking to divest Bormioli, & various parties had approached the bank in the last few months about a sale. The sale will be run by merchant bank Efibanca.In a letter to bidders, Efibanca gave notice of the deadlines: end-Feb for signing of the confidentiality letter & mid-March for the receipt of non-binding offers. Efibanca will then draw up a shortlist of bidders & exclusive negotiations will be opened with one party from the list. The main obstacle at present seems to be the price: according to unofficial sources, Efibanca has let it be known that it values Bormioli at EUR 350M for the equity alone. If debt is added, the value of the firm could rise to EUR 450-480M. , a figure which is 8 times the firm's gross operating profit.
