MILAN (Reuters) – Italy’s bank deposit guarantee fund on Monday chose BPER Banca to negotiate the sale of its stake in Carige, which it has controlled since its rescue in 2019.
After a meeting of its steering committee on Monday, the Italian Deposit Guarantee Fund, which owns 80% of Carige, said BPER would have four weeks to study the bank’s financial data in order to agree to a sale no later than February 15.
Before Christmas, BPER Banca had offered a symbolic euro to buy Carige and had also demanded a recapitalization to the tune of one billion euros from the Guarantee Fund.
Its initial offer having been rejected, BPER Banca said on Monday it was now calling for a recapitalization to 530 million euros.
Thanks to the tax incentives, BPER Banca expects the transaction to have a neutral impact on its capital reserves and that earnings per share will increase significantly from 2023, she added.
If its offer were accepted by the Guarantee Fund, BPER Banca would buy back the remainder of Carige’s capital at a price of 0.80 euro per share.
Crédit Agricole also submitted an offer to take over Carige via its Italian subsidiary.
BPER Banca, however, has the favor of the Italian authorities, some fearing that Crédit Agricole Italia will strengthen its presence in Italy after the buyout last year of Creval for one billion euros.
(Report Andrea Mandala and Valentina Za, French version Bertrand Boucey and Camille Raynaud)
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