BancoBpm: 'UniCredit's offer does not reflect our potential'
The bank board's response after the offer launched yesterday. Credit Agricole: 'We did not ask to go higher than 9.9 per cent'
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Key points
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Unicredit's offer "in no way reflects the profitability and further value creation potential for Banco Bpm shareholders". This is the clear judgement of the bank's board, which reiterates that the offer was not solicited and recalls that the potential value of Piazza Meda "is further strengthened by the extraordinary operations recently announced, which are in addition to the actions already contained in the 2023-26 industrial plan and which will result in an update of the plan's objectives, already partly anticipated to the market".
The gross cost synergies estimated by Unicredit at 900 million are "more than a third of Banco Bpm's cost base" and therefore "raise serious concerns about the foreseeable repercussions on employment and social issues". This was emphasised by BancoBpm's board of directors after analysing the rival's offer. "Moreover, these synergies, as well as the revenue synergies, are not valued at all in the terms of the offer," reads a note.
The board meeting was already on the calendar, but in light of the offer launched by UniCredit on Monday, it took on a much greater significance. Already in the morning, however, the first stances had emerged: when asked by journalists whether Unicredit's public exchange offer is to be considered hostile, the board member Mauro Paoloni, upon entering the bank's headquarters, had replied: 'Yes'.
Yesterday UniCredit put on the table an exchange of 0.175 new Unicredit shares for each Banco Bpm security. A 'non-binding' offer, specified Orcel, which sets the bar at 50 per cent of adhesions with the aim of rising above 66 per cent. To the shareholders Orcel implicitly pays 6.657 euro per share, 0.5 per cent more than last Friday's closing values of BancoBpm.
UniCredit's €10.1bn takeover bid aims to delist Banco Bpm and proceed with a merger between the two institutions. However, the offer was made without prior agreement with BancoBpm's board of directors, which is why it was perceived as ostile.
