UniCredit strikes again at European banking sector. It has submitted a bid for Banco BPM for 10.09 billion euros. UniCredit said it would offer 0.175 of its own shares for each BPM share. The exchange ratio implies an offer value of 6.67 euros per share, a premium of about 0.4% compared to BPM’s last close on November 22, 2024.
What is Banco BM
Banco BM is an Italian bank that began operations on 1 January 2017, with the merger of Banco Popolare and Banco Popolare di Milano. The bank is the third largest retail and corporate banking group in Italy, behind Intesa Sanpaolo and Unicredit.
Unicredit’s actions
In September, UniCredit increased its stake in German bank Commerzbank to around 21% and submitted a request to increase the stake to 29.9%. Earlier in the same month, the Italian bank had acquired a 9% stake in Commerzbank, half of which was acquired by the German government.
The German government has yet to approve the potential merger, with Chancellor Olaf Scholz stating that “unfriendly or hostile takeovers are not good for banks”. Commerzbank’s largest shareholder, the Berlin-based management, retains a 12% stake after bailing out the bank during the 2008 financial crisis and selling off its original 4.5% stake in early September.
Earlier this month, meanwhile, Banco BPM itself made a bid for asset manager Anima in a potential 1.6 billion euro deal and a few days later bought 5% of state-owned Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS).
UniCredit on November 6 reported an 8% rise in third-quarter net profit to 2.5 billion euros, compared with a 2.27 billion euro forecast reported by Reuters.
It also raised its full-year net profit guidance to more than 9 billion euros, from 8.5 billion euros previously. Shares have risen about 55% so far this year.
