BancoBpm, Opa on Anima: how the 'Danish compromise' arrives in Italy

With the takeover bid launched by BancoBpm through its insurance subsidiary on Anima Sgr, the so-called 'Danish compromise bis' also arrives in Italy. The transaction has a strategic value for the bank led by CEO Giuseppe Castagna because the new financial conglomerate will provide the BancoBpm group with a pole that can count on total assets of 220 billion between life insurance and asset management.

But what makes the transaction more convenient, with capital absorption limited to 30 basis points of Cet1, is the new Basel III regulation and in particular the so-called extended Danish compromise which, as highlighted by a report by Mediobanca Research in September, allows capital discounts if a bank acquires an asset manager not directly but through one of its insurance subsidiaries.

It is no coincidence that it is not the parent company BancoBpm that is launching the offer, but its subsidiary BancoBpm Vita, replicating a scheme, never before used in Italy, which in July had seen the French Bnp Paribas - through its insurance subsidiary Cardiff - acquire the asset management division from Axa. A case destined to set the standard in Italy as well, and which sees the BancoBpm group as the forerunner.

The takeover bid on Anima Sgr projects the group led by Castagna towards a growth strategy that, with due dimensional proportions, traces that of Intesa Sanpaolo with a business model that aims to internalise product companies. Will BancoBpm's dimensional growth also serve to evade any future aims of UniCredit? Perhaps, although yesterday CEO Andrea Orcel declared that the Commerzbank dossier will keep him busy for at least a year. Rather, it will be interesting to see whether the new 'captive' Anima Sgr, i.e. controlled by BancoBpm, will maintain relations with one of its main clients: Mps.