Monte de Pasi makes 13.3 billion euro all-stake bid for Mediobanka Reuters

By Valentina Za

MILAN (Reuters) – Securities lender Monte de Paschi di Sina (MPS) said on Friday it was making a 13.3 billion euro ($13.9 billion) all-share buyout offer for Mediobanca (OTC). A complicated Italian banking saga.

Monte dei Paschi ( MPS ), the troubled Italian bank until a 2017 bailout, is offering 23 of its own shares for 10 Mediobanca shares, equivalent to a 5% premium to Thursday’s closing price.

Mediobanca has a market capitalization of 12.7 billion euros, compared to Monte dei Paschi’s capitalization of 8.8 billion.

The buyout offer comes after Italy brought in Delfin, the late billionaire Leonardo del Vecchio’s company, and tycoon Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone as shareholders in November as part of Italy’s bid to privatize Bank of Tuscany.

Delphine is the largest shareholder in Mediobanca with a 19.8% stake, while Caltagirone has a 7.8% stake.

Delphi almost tripled its initial MPS stake to 9.8 percent in January.

Mediobanca, Caltagirone and Delfin are all large shareholders in Insurance General (BIT:), accounting for a third of its capital base.

Caltagirone, which bought 3.5% of Monte dei Paschi, increased its stake to 5% in November.

MPS has been successfully restructured in recent years under CEO Luigi Lovaglio, a veteran UniCredit executive.

Italy was looking for a partner for MPS as it gradually reduced its shareholding from an initial 68% to 11.7%, which, like other medium-sized banks, would need high technology investments and face long-term problems due to the risk of not doing so. – Bank players.

UniCredit in 2010 Having left the deal in 2021, the Treasury is working on a possible tie-up with Banco BPM in November, along with Delphine and Caltagirone as shareholders in MPS.

That plan was thwarted by UniCredit’s decision to launch a takeover offer for Banco BPM late last year, with CEO Andrea Orcel saying his bank could not stand aside in the consolidation process.

($1 = 0.9568 EUR)