BARCELONA (Agefi-Dow Jones) – Shares of Italian bank Banca Carige fell on the Milan Stock Exchange on Tuesday, falling to the level of the price offered to minority shareholders by its potential buyer, BPER Banca.
Around 10:30 am, the Banca Carige share dropped 10.6% to 0.80 euros.
The Italian bank BPER announced Monday evening that it had entered into exclusive negotiations with a view to buying out minority interests in Banca Carige for 0.80 euros per share, an amount revised upwards compared to its first offer. As a first step, BPER will buy back the 80% stake in FITD, the interbank deposit guarantee fund in Italy, for 1 euro per share.
The exclusivity period for negotiations will end on February 15.
BPER had submitted a first non-binding offer for Carige last month, the terms of which were deemed unacceptable by the FITD. The latter had nevertheless shown himself open to negotiations.
BPER’s new offer stipulates that FITD must inject 530 million euros into Banca Carige before selling its stake. This amount was almost halved compared to BPER’s first offer.
BPER will launch a due diligence audit of Carige’s activities and hopes to sign an agreement by February 15 at the latest. The bank also hopes to complete the acquisition of the 80% held by the FITD by June 30, she said.
-Cristina Roca, Dow Jones Newswires
(French version Valérie Venck) ed: ECH
Agefi-Dow Jones The financial newswire
Dow Jones Newswires
January 11, 2022 04:32 ET (09:32 GMT)