Unipol seeks to own more than 30% of a possible banking group bringing together BPER Banca and assets to be separated from Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS), with room to raise that holding later, its chief executive was cited as saying by Reuters.
The insurer reached an agreement to purchase a business made up of about 635 MPS branches, most of the bank’s central functions and the Monte dei Paschi brand from Intesa Sanpaolo, provided Intesa’s takeover offer for MPS succeeds
Unipol intends to merge those operations with BPER, the mid-sized Italian bank in which it is already the biggest shareholder. After the first-half results, CEO Matteo Laterza said: “Our ambition is to have a stake of more than 30% in the new financial entity. “Depending on our capability in terms of capital generation, we look forward over time to increasing the stake.” Laterza said Unipol wanted to “create a big financial conglomerate that will have an insurance leg and a banking leg that make the same contribution in terms of profitability.” Replying to analysts’ questions on the agreement with Intesa, he said the terms shielded Unipol from any rise in the value of Intesa’s bid beyond agreed limits. In the proposed transaction, the amount Unipol would pay for the carved-out MPS business is capped at €3.5bn ($4.04bn).
Laterza said Unipol’s surplus capital generation would be used mainly to fund the MPS carve-out purchase, alongside a planned €2.5bn capital increase that he expects to complete by the end of the year. Last month, BPER raised its offer to acquire Banca Popolare di Sondrio to €5.4bn ($6.4bn). This marks a jump from its initial €4.3bn all-share proposal launched in February this year.