Carige takeover: Italian bank Bper Banca ready to review its offer


Milan (awp / dpa) – Italian bank Bper Banca, which has offered to buy its struggling competitor Carige for a symbolic euro, said on Tuesday evening it was ready to review the terms of its offer with the interbank deposit protection fund (FITD).

The fund, which owns 80% of Carige after having bailed it out in 2019, on Monday opposed this non-binding offer, estimating too high a prior capital increase of one billion euros which has been requested by Bper Banca.

Bper Banca’s board of directors, meeting on Tuesday, “reiterated its willingness to provide the requested clarifications” and to “jointly verify” with the FITD the “assumptions” on which its offer is based, in the context of “exclusive discussions” “, according to a statement.

Bper Banca had proposed last Tuesday to take over 88.3% of Carige for one euro, of which 8.3% held by Cassa Centrale Banca (CCB), and to launch a public tender offer (takeover bid) on the 12% of the capital. remaining, at a price of 0.80 euros per share, ie a premium of 29% compared to the closing price on December 13.

The Italian banking system, weakened by its large number of establishments and its excessively high stock of bad debts, has been in the process of restructuring for several years. The banks were encouraged to come together in order to create synergies.

In January 2017, Banco Popolare and Banca Popolare di Milano thus merged, giving birth to Banco BPM.

Intesa Sanpaolo took over in June 2017 for one symbolic euro the healthy assets of two Venetian banks (Banca Popolare di Vicenza and Veneto Banca) on the verge of bankruptcy, before absorbing Ubi Banca in 2020.

At the end of 2017, the French mutual banking group Cr̩dit Agricole bought three regional savings banks in northern Italy РCesena, Rimini and San Miniato savings banks.

Conversely, Monte dei Paschi di Siena (BMPS), which had been bailed out in 2017 by the Italian state, has still not found a buyer, after the failure of discussions at the end of October with the country’s second bank, UniCredit.

afp / rp



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