Bper relaunches on Sondrio: one euro more cash to secure the Ops

In the end, Bper broke the hesitations and played the cash card. In a move that was expected but not taken for granted, the Modenese bank's board of directors has approved an increase in the consideration for the public exchange offer on Banca Popolare di Sondrio. It is a move clearly aimed at winning over the retail shareholders of the Valtellina-based institution, which is worth around 35% of the capital.

The new consideration envisaged by Bper now envisages, for each Sondrio share taken up in the offer, 1.450 newly issued Bper shares, as originally envisaged, plus a cash component of 1.00 euro. An addition that significantly changes the picture of the transaction in terms of overall valuation.

Based on the official price of Bper shares recorded on 5 February - 6.57 euro - the updated consideration expresses a total value of 10.527 euro per Sondrio share. A level that incorporates a premium of 17.8% compared to the Popolare valtellinese share price on the same date (8.934 euro).

With this decision - expected by the market, as anticipated by Il Sole 24Ore on 18 June - Bper aims to give a decisive boost to subscriptions - currently at 20% - and, above all, to win the favour of the retail shareholders of the Valtellina bank, worth around 35% of the capital and which, in the event of last-minute raises, would have been more difficult to achieve by the 11 July deadline. The addition of cash is in fact designed to convince precisely the retail part of the shareholding, traditionally more reluctant to paper-only transactions. "The increase in consideration through a cash raise," says Gianni Franco Papa, Bper's CEO, "is a concrete signal that further testifies to the great value that we attribute to the transaction and to the industrial value that has always characterised it. The improvement of the economic conditions of the Offer through the recognition of an additional cash component - in addition to the planned share component - aims at maximising the adhesions by shareholders and, therefore, the full success of the transaction, without changing its financial objectives".