ING close to buying 40% stake in Spain's Singular, source says

MADRID, July 1 (Reuters) - ING Spain is close to finalising the purchase of a 40% stake in Singular Bank as part of its plans to enter the Spanish private banking sector, a person with knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday.

The deal, first reported by Spanish newspaper Expansion, is still not closed and subject to final details, the person said, without providing financial details.

Singular, in which U.S. fund Warburg Pincus owns a 93% stake, was not immediately available for comment. ING Spain declined to comment.

Italy's Intesa Sanpaolo had also been among the parties interested in Singular, sources told Reuters in May, confirming an earlier Financial Times report which said Warburg was seeking €300 million ($342 million) for its entire stake.

Since then, however, Intesa has unveiled a €30.6 billion unsolicited cash-and-share bid to buy domestic rival Monte dei Paschi di Siena and a person close to the matter told Reuters it was fully focused on that.

Singular's management, which owns 7% of the company and is led by former Santander CEO Javier Marin, was running the sale process and seeking a new majority investor, a source had told Reuters.

Singular, which bought UBS' Spanish wealth management business in 2021, has around €18 billion under management as of the first quarter.

ING Spain will become part of a consortium of investors in which no single shareholder will hold more than 50% and which will also include Marin, a Mexican bank and several family offices, with ING Spain holding the largest stake, Expansion said.

Should this transaction go ahead, Warburg Pincus will exit the Spanish bank entirely, Expansion added.

($1 = 0.8771 euros) 

(Reporting by Jesús Aguado in Madrid; additional reporting by Valentina Za in Miland; Editing by Alexander Smith)