Unicredit clashes with the Meloni Government in its attempt to purchase Banca Popolare di Milano

Another operation in the integration process of European banking. The Italian bank Unicredit has launched a public takeover bid (OPA) for its rival Banca Popolare di Milano (BPM), valued at 10.1 billion euros. A move that, from the outset, does not seem to have the approval of Giorgia Meloni’s Executive.

The entity headed by Andrea Orcel, who was on the verge of becoming CEO of Banco Santander, wants to buy its competitor with an exchange of shares. In parallel, they have another operation underway, because a few weeks ago they went after a German entity, Commerzbank, in a step that revealed the nationalist obstacles to European mergers within the financial sector.

Now, Unicredit moves within Italy, but it also does not have a red carpet that facilitates integration, at least initially.

The reason is that Banca Popolare di Milano was emerging as a key player to consolidate the third largest banking entity in the transalpine country, only behind Unicredit itself and Intesa Sanpaolo.

This Tuesday, BPM rejected the purchase offer of its competitor, alleging that the price proposed by Unicredit (which offers 6.6 euros per share, to be paid in shares) “does not in any way reflect the profitability and future potential value for the shareholders of the bank,” as stated by its board of directors in a statement.

Rome’s preferences

A few days ago, the Italian State assured that it had managed to earn more than 1,000 million euros with the sale to various investors of 15% of Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS), the Tuscan bank that it had to rescue almost eight years ago and from which had already placed more than 35% of the capital on the market, with the goal of returning it to private hands as soon as possible.

Within this movement, the Milanese bank BPM kept 5% and announced that it wanted to reach 9.9%, although with no intention of merging both entities. However, as published by the Reuters agency, the Meloni Government would welcome this operation, between BPM and MPS, because it would give rise to a larger entity with the capacity to compete with the first two swords of Italian banking.

The vice president of the Italian Government, the far-right Matteo Salvini, has already charged against a union between Unicredit and Banca Popolare di Milano. “I have never liked concentrations,” he said yesterday Monday in statements collected by The Republic. “I stayed with the fact that Unicredit wanted to grow in Germany,” he said ironically.

He also stated that Unicredit “has little or no Italian, it is a foreign bank.” According to the Unicredit shareholding structureonly 8% of the capital is in the hands of Italian investors, while 42% are American; 25%, from the United Kingdom; and 22% from other European countries. The majority of its investors, 75%, are institutional and only one is mentioned as a reference shareholder, the giant Blackrock, which exceeds 7% of the shareholding.

“For me,” Salvini assured, “on the other hand, it is important that difficulties are not put in place for entities like BPM and MPS, which are Italian entities that could create the third Italian bank.” And, in addition, he took the opportunity to charge against the Italian Central Bank. “What has he done? Does it exist? Do you supervise it? “I would like to know if everything is under control,” he criticized during an event in Milan.