MILAN : ION, a privately-held financial technology group, is looking to pay for Italian bad loan recovery firm Prelios in several stages as it holds discussions with U.S. hedge fund Davidson Kempner Capital Management, sources said. The two sources close to the matter said ION and DK were discussing a so-called earn out clause, which would see ION pay part of the price at closing and the rest once the business hits certain financial targets. However, it is not certain the parties can reach an agreement, one of the sources said.