Irish Internet Bank First-E Joins Spanish Uno-E

Jeremy Hetherington-Gore, Tax-news.com

28 February 2000

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.

Recommended