Castagna (Banco Bpm): Crédit Agricole good opportunity, would be good for Italy

Crédit Agricole 'is the most obvious opportunity we have'. This was said by Banco Bpm's CEO, Giuseppe Castagna, in an interview with Class Cnbc, in which it was recalled that Banque Verte has increased its stake in Piazza Meda to over 20%. "We have to give our shareholders the best option on the market," explained Castagna, according to whom a possible merger with Crédit Agricole Italia "is certainly a potential opportunity, the clearest one we have".

With the French credit bigwig 'there are many opportunities because they have an important bank in Italy, Crédit Agricole Italia, with which we have many synergies, we already have a product factory with them in non-life insurance and consumer credit'. According to the CEO, 'it is certainly something that could be good for the Italian economy, but it is certainly not the only one'. And 'we cannot ignore everything else that exists in Italy'.

According to Castagna, the hypothesis of a three-way merger including Bpm, Mps and Crédit Agricole Italia 'is another opportunity. Everything started withthe launch of our Opa on Anima, because Mps is the second distributor of Anima products. We were very interested in working with Mps and that is why we buy 9% from the government. Then everything changed with the UniCredit takeover bid, they looked at Mediobanca, now that these issues have settled we will have to talk about Anima's prospects. If from there we will also talk about the potential opportunity of another merger, we will see later, but this is also a good opportunity'.

With regard to a possible return to attack by Unicredit after the abandonment of the Ops on Piazza Meda, according to Castagna, 'Orcel is so good at M&A that it is possible that when he now says he is not looking at M&A he still has his eye on something. The only thing that is certain is that when he launched the offer our bank was worth 10 billion now it is worth 19 billion. It is a different situation but of course we are ready for whatever may happen even if Unicredit comes back again'.

Regarding the hypothesis of a contribution from the banks in the financial manoeuvre, with an extension of the deferred tax suspension (Dta), Castagna states that 'we are always willing to collaborate for the needs of the country. We thought that the agreement found last year was sufficient as a basis, but if there is an extension, we will be ready to discuss it with the government'. On the issue, he recalled, 'a very preliminary discussion is still ongoing,' Castagna said. "The banks have delegated the Italian Banking Association and its director general to discuss it with the government."