ING Spain Close to Buying 40% Stake in Singular Bank as Warburg Pincus Prepares Full Exit

What's Happening

ING Spain is close to acquiring a 40% stake in Singular Bank, according to a person with knowledge of the matter cited by Reuters on Wednesday, July 1. The deal would mark ING's entry into Spain's private banking sector.

The transaction was first reported by Spanish newspaper Expansión. A person familiar with the matter told Reuters the deal is still not closed and remains subject to final details. No financial terms were provided through official channels.

Spanish financial outlet Merca2 has reported the stake is valued at around €200 million, though that figure has not been confirmed by the parties involved.

Who Owns Singular Now

U.S. private equity fund Warburg Pincus currently holds 93% of Singular Bank. The remaining 7% is owned by Singular's management team, led by Javier Marín, the former CEO of Santander.

Warburg has been running a sale process, seeking a new majority investor. According to Reuters, Marín and the management team have been actively driving that process.

If the transaction goes through as described by Expansión, Warburg Pincus will exit Singular entirely.

The Consortium Structure

ING Spain would not be buying in alone. According to Expansión, it would become the largest single stakeholder inside a consortium that also includes Marín, a Mexican bank, and several family offices. No single investor in the consortium would hold more than 50%.

This structure keeps control distributed, with ING holding the biggest individual piece at 40%.

What Singular Bank Is

Singular is a Spanish private bank with around €18 billion in assets under management as of the first quarter of 2026, according to Reuters. The firm expanded significantly in 2021 when it acquired UBS's Spanish wealth management business.

That acquisition gave Singular an established client base and positioned it as a meaningful player in Spain's high-net-worth market. That's exactly the segment ING is now trying to access.

Intesa Sanpaolo Is Out

Italy's Intesa Sanpaolo had also been interested in Singular. Reuters confirmed in May that Intesa was among the competing bidders, following an earlier Financial Times report that said Warburg was seeking €300 million ($342 million) for its entire stake.

Intesa has since shifted its focus. The Italian bank launched a €30.6 billion unsolicited cash-and-share bid to acquire domestic rival Monte dei Paschi di Siena. A person close to the matter told Reuters that Intesa is now fully concentrated on that effort, effectively taking it out of the Singular race.

Neither Side Is Talking

ING Spain declined to comment. Singular Bank was not immediately available for comment when contacted by Reuters. Neither Warburg Pincus nor Marín have made public statements on the deal.

The Strongest Counterpoint

Skeptics of this kind of private equity exit-and-restructure deal have a reasonable concern: consortium structures with no controlling shareholder can create governance drift. When no single party owns more than 50% and the investor mix includes family offices, a foreign bank, and management insiders, decision-making authority gets murky fast. Critics of this model argue that diffuse ownership without a clear operator-owner can leave mid-size wealth managers strategically rudderless, particularly during market stress.

ING would be the largest stakeholder, but at 40% it cannot impose direction unilaterally. How the consortium agreement allocates board seats and veto rights will determine whether this structure works in practice.

What Comes Next

The deal is not done. The source cited by Reuters was explicit that final details are still being worked out. Given Warburg's reported €300 million ask for 100% of the company versus the reported ~€200 million for 40%, the question is whether Warburg is accepting a lower blended valuation to get its full exit done, or whether the final price lands somewhere between those figures. That gap has not been publicly resolved.