The Italian bank Unicredit, one of the largest financial institutions in the country, has approved through its board of directors the launch of a public acquisition offer (OPA) on the entire capital of its domestic rival, Banco BPM, the third financial services group in the country by assets, in exchange for 10.1 billion euros payable entirely in shares.
The entity led by Andrea Orcel contemplates the payment of 0.175 newly issued Unicredit shares for each BPM share. This would imply a price of 6,657 euros per share. The director of Unicredit, Andrea Orcelhas stressed that the BPM takeover bid is “autonomous and independent of the investment made by Unicredit in the share capital of Commerzbank.”
In this way, the premium offered over the closing price of Banco BPM shares last Friday would be around 0.5% and would be around 15% of BPM’s share price without modifications on November 6, before the announcement of the acquisition offer of Anima by this entity.
In the context of the transaction, UniCredit currently expects to incur integration costs of around 2,000 million gross euros during the first year, and assume incremental provisions for credit losses of at least 800 million euros gross.
Settlement of the exchange offer is expected to be completed in June 2025, with closing of the integration expected in approximately 12 months thereafter and the majority of synergies realized within 24 months.
If completed, UniCredit believes that the transaction will allow it to further accelerate long-term sustainable quality growth and will substantially strengthen its position in Italy while securing investment in the Bank’s customer franchise, distribution channels and technology. BPM.
“With this acquisition of one of our historic targets, we strengthen our position in Italy while further enhancing the value we can create for all our stakeholders in that market, as well as our shareholders,” he stated. Andrea OrcelCEO of UniCredit.
“Europe needs stronger and bigger banks to help it develop its economy and help it compete against the other large economic blocs,” he added, underlining that UniCredit is well positioned to respond to that challenge as well.
Last September, UniCredit acquired a stake of around 9% in the German bank Commerzbank with the possibility of becoming its largest shareholder after the regulator authorized the potential increase to 21% of its position.
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