BdM Banca: Pastore says Iccrea has made an excellent offer; some ‘fine-tuning’ is possible
‘I hope this is considered carefully; we never make redundancies’
(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - The Iccrea Group is convinced that it has submitted an ‘excellent’ binding offer for BdM Banca, together with Popolare di Puglia e Basilicata, and does not rule out the possibility of ‘refining’ the terms of the proposal, particularly if it obtains the guarantees required as part of the transaction. This was explained by Mauro Pastore, general manager of the cooperative banking group, in an interview with Radiocor on the sidelines of the annual conference of the Lombardy Federation of BCCs. Iccrea, he noted, is ‘very committed to this initiative’: ‘We are very keen for it to go ahead because we believe we can be one of the groups that truly enhance the very region in which’ the branches of the former Popolare di Bari ‘are currently located, namely the South, thereby strengthening it’. “I think our bid is an excellent one and should be regarded as such,” he asserted. And what if some fine-tuning were to prove necessary? “All bids need refining,” Pastore said calmly, “not least because we have asked for certain guarantees, for example regarding past litigation: perhaps at that stage, if—in light of certain responses from the seller—we are asked to increase the bid slightly in another area, it will be something worth considering and makes logical sense, because those guarantees mean less money to spend, and if there is less money to spend, it can be allocated elsewhere.” As for the timeframe for the decision, Pastore merely reiterated that Iccrea ‘has made the offer: they are considering it, and we trust that our considerations – both financial and those relating to the retention of staff and branches – will be carefully assessed’. Indeed, safeguarding employment levels is said to be one of the key strengths of the Iccrea-BPPB bid, particularly when compared with the competing proposal from Credem (whilst, according to the latest rumours, UniCredit may also re-enter the fray). “In the history of cooperative credit, as far as I can recall – and I have been familiar with it for several decades – there has never been a collective redundancy,” concluded Pastore.
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