Will Bper digest Carige?
Non-binding offer by Bper on Carige. All the latest news on Carige including rumors, interested banks and maneuvers to raise prices on the stock exchange
Bper submitted an unrestricted offer to the Interbank Deposit Protection Fund for the acquisition of Carige.
The proposed acquisition of Carige by Bper provides that the Fitd pays one billion euros to recapitalize the Ligurian institute and that the Emilian institute pays 1 euro to take over 88.3% of the capital of the Ligurian institute in hand to Fitd and to Ccb. Subsequently, a note reads, Bper will launch a takeover bid at € 0.80 per share, with a premium of 29% compared to the closing price of Carige yesterday. The Ligurian institute will then be incorporated into Bper
Meanwhile, there has been a commotion on the stock market over Banca Carige, suspended on the stock market on 14 December in an upward volatility auction, following press reports on the Bank's future.
The Interbank Deposit Protection Fund, according to rumors of the day before by Radiocor (Sole 24 Ore group), would be in dialogue with two banks and a fund to find a solution for the credit institution.
The president of the Fund, Salvatore Maccarone, has convened the Board of the Interbank Fund for 15 December to which he will inform the representatives of the consortium banks on the dossier.
If Bper's move goes through, Carige will pass 88.3% of the bank's capital (80 of Fitd and 8.3 of the second shareholder Ccb) into the hands of Bper for the price of one euro. At this point, a Bper takeover bid will start on the remaining capital of Carige, which has just returned to the stock market for which the Emilian group will undertake to pay a consideration of 0.80 euros per share (11.3% of the capital for a value of about 70 million). Once all these steps have been completed, the procedure for the "merger by incorporation" of Carige can be triggered.
As far as the Radiocor agency was aware prior to Bper's offer, the discussions are in progress in particular with Crédit Agricole Italia and Bper. In Piazza Affari, the Carige stock recorded a theoretical increase of 9% to € 0.67 while Bper advanced by 1.5% to € 1.75.
The intentions of the selling party are to arrive as soon as possible at a road map for the sale: having removed the unknown factor of the Malacalza case (with the rejection by the Court of Genoa of the 480 million damage request), the Budget law with the approval of the DTA regulation that would favor the sale of the Ligurian bank, Il Sole 24 Ore added today .
Are the French interested in Carige? «It is a dossier that I know little and I am unable to give any information. We have no other dossiers », explained the CEO of Agricole Italia, Giampiero Maioli yesterday. The banker recalled that "only in 2022 we have two mergers" because "within a few months, around 25 April we will incorporate Creval and at the end of the year we will incorporate FriulAdria".
Yesterday, in the meantime, the Fabi National Council was an opportunity to reopen the discussion on the M&A chapter by the CEOs of the main Italian banking groups.
In particular, from the statements that emerged, it is common to think that in the medium term (12-18 months) a new phase of consolidation in the sector could start, once the situation for Mps is clearer, with the updating of the industrial plan. which will be presented shortly and with DG Comp which should approve the extension of the MEF exit from the bank's capital by the beginning of 2022.
In particular, noted today Equita Sim, the ceo of Banco Bpm, Giuseppe Castagna, who expressed his preference for the creation of a pole by making combinations with banks of similar size, has shown himself to be more possible than in the past compared to the hypothesis of M&A with Monte, once the latter's capital increase has been completed, which should be completed in the first half of 2022.
"Considering the methods and principles agreed with the Mef by Unicredit last July, it is reasonable to expect that any new deal involving Mps may be based on the same principles: a more restricted perimeter of assets, exclusion of legal risks, exclusion of credits deteriorated by Mps ", observed the sim.
But in the afternoon it was an Ansa who deflated the media and stock exchange case of Carige.
No significant news is expected on Carige from Thursday's board of Fitd, the interbank deposit protection fund. The meeting, which has been on the agenda for some time and has no extraordinary character, will serve for a series of year-end obligations, such as the approval of the final balance sheet and the budget, which is reported to Ansa by sources in the dossier.
The information on Carige, on which the board is updated at each meeting, will not contain significant progress compared to the previous board. "There has been interest and curiosity about the bank on the part of many subjects but nothing concrete in the state", it is pointed out.
The hope of the Fitd is that the first half of 2022 will be the right one to find a solid partner to entrust the Ligurian institution to, also leveraging an important asset such as tax incentives for mergers, which the maneuver should extend until June. next year. In any case, accelerations on Genoa are excluded before the end of the year.
On 15 December, a Carige board of directors is on the agenda, with operational issues on the agenda: the bank is not currently involved in the events relating to the shareholding structure.
Finally, the Cerberus hypothesis for Carige fades. The American private equity fund – according to what Radiocor learns – has recently worked on an operation on the Genoese bank in search of an industrial or financial partner but interest has recently cooled so much that some sources speak of hypotheses nuanced. The fund has as senior advisor in Italy Roberto Nicastro – former general manager of Unicredit and protagonist in the delicate solution of the crisis of Banca Marche, Banca Etruria, Cariferrara and Carichieti – and in recent months he approached the Carige dossier in the hands of the advisor German bank. Between 2017 and 2018 Cerberus had considered the investment in another medium-sized Italian institution, Credito Valtellinese, which later ended more recently within the Credit Agricole group. Asked about the rumors relating to the interest in Carige, the Cerberus fund does not comment.
Meanwhile, as mentioned. Bper came forward with a non-binding expression of interest.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/bper-carige/ on Tue, 14 Dec 2021 11:45:11 +0000.