Unicredit’s offensive to take over its Italian rival BPM (Banco Popolare di Milano) has encountered, at least, a stop along the way. The firm, after a meeting of its board, has responded with an initial refusal to the offer of 10,000 million euros. “They do not reflect in any way the profitability or potential “In this way, the firm has explained that, although “we have taken note of the communication”, they are surprised that “in no case has this offer been previously agreed with the bank.”
According to the entity, the council has unanimously considered that the offer “is based on totally unusual conditions for transactions of this type“and for this reason they reject the agreement outright. After hearing the news, the firm’s shares fell 0.26%, while those of Unicredit rose 0.17%. The bank added that the gross cost synergies estimated by UniCredit At 900 million they represent “more than a third of BPM’s cost base” and for this reason, “they raise strong concerns about the foreseeable repercussions on employment and social standards.”
The firm led by Andrea Orcel I could keep raising the stakes, making this rejection only the first ’round’, so the possible purchase is not over. The offer is not binding and, in fact, must be confirmed within 20 days through a document submitted to the Italian market regulator.
In any case, from now on, the legislation indicates that BPM will not be able to carry out any operation or take any measure that could frustrate the operation without first having called a shareholders’ meeting to give the green light to any movement. In that sense, this complicates this entity’s offensive to take over the fund manager, Anima. BOM launched on November 7th a takeover bid of 1,600 million by the manager and, now it would have a great burden in an eventual bid.
This Monday Unicredit launched an offer of 10,000 million euros to take over the third largest bank in Italy. This movement completely caught by surprise the markets that were still pending the complicated operation by Commerzbank to grow in Germany. This turn of events seemed to respond to a new direction in the expansion policy of the Italian giant, which it had already marked for some time with operations such as the purchase of part of Alphabank.
Returning to the Italian operation, the offer was already rejected values BPM at around 6.66 euros per share. If it comes to fruition, we would be talking about the third largest bank in the entire euro zone by market capitalization. In terms of assets, it would still be the second largest in the country, behind Intesa-San Paolo. In total it would add close to 19 million clients. In any case, it was a very tight premium of just 0.5% over the value of the securities on the stock market, a very tight operation, which is precisely what has led to opposition for the moment.
“This operation has been communicated but not agreed with the Government of Italy”
Not only have there been doubts from the company itself, but in the highest spheres of Italian politics there is a climate of perplexity due to Andrea Orcel’s surprising move. “This operation has been communicated but not agreed with the Government of Italy,” commented Giancarlo Giorgetti, Minister of Economy, this Monday. “The Government will make its own evaluations in this regard and will carefully evaluate the operation when Unicredit sends its proposal.”
Before the board meeting in Milan, the entity’s director Mauro Paoloni told reporters that UniCredit’s takeover offer was “hostile.” Clearly showing themselves against reaching a union between both parties.
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