Irish Internet Bank First-E Joins Spanish Uno-E
The Spanish bank Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) and Telefonica's
Terra Internet offshoot have acquired Dublin-based Internet bank
First-e. It is not yet a month since BBVA and Telefonica agreed
to joint development of Internet services through Terra, and launched
Uno-e to offer Internet banking in Southern Europe. First-e itself
is not yet a year old and will now be merged with Uno-e as UnoFirst.
BBVA and Terra are
paying $280m in cash to Enba, the parent of First-e, which will
also hold 32.5% of UnoFirst. The shareholders of Enba include
Intel, Paine Webber, CGU, Wit Capital and Morgan Stanley. BBVA
and Terra will then hold 33.75% each of UnoFirst, which is expected
to seek a listing next year. Gerhard Huber, Chief
Executive of First-e will retain that role in UnoFirst while Manuel
Galatas, Chief Executive of Uno-e, will be Chairman. Valuing the
deal is next to impossible given the newness of both players;
First-e claims more than 100,000 account-holders in the UK, France
(where is has its banking license) and Northern Europe, while
Uno-e said it had 19,000 'expressions of interest' in its markets.
Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, who advised on the deal, values UnoFirst
at more than $2bn. But the truth is that the various very large
players involved in this deal just have to stake out Internet
banking turf as quickly as they can, and money at this stage is
simply not an object. .
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