Mps to raise its stake in Mediobanca to more than 50 per cent
Siena board meeting: ready cash component between 500 and 700 million. At current stock exchange prices the discount is 3.7%, equal to EUR 640 million.
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Key points
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Mps would be ready to relaunch the Mediobanca Ops. Barring any twists and turns, after days of waiting and with a gap between the two shares that in terms of value has reached almost EUR 700 million, Luigi Lovaglio's bank seems determined to play on the offensive and aim, by inserting a cash component, to exceed the 50% capital threshold necessary not so much for the efficacy of the offer as for the future balance of the third banking pole.
Monte di Monte's board of directors met yesterday to decide whether to add a cash component to its offer for Piazzetta Cuccia in order to give a further boost to subscriptions, which are already close to the 35% minimum threshold, and thus secure full control of the institution led by Alberto Nagel. The decisions will be announced this morning before the opening of the stock exchange, but the impression on the market is that they are heading towards the expected adjustment. The size of the cash component should be in a range between EUR 500 million and EUR 700 million. In the presence of this revision of the terms of the offer, the closing of the deal set for 8 September could be postponed at this point.
There was no comment from Siena, while on the stock market the shares of the two banks involved moved in a contrasting manner: Piazzetta Cuccia's share closed unchanged at EUR 20.7, while Monte's rose 0.34% to EUR 7.87. Since the launch of the offer, Piazzetta Cuccia's share price has risen by around 26%, against +21.5% for Rocca Salimbeni's stock. The operation provides for an exchange of 2.533 Mps shares for each Mediobanca share and, at current stock market prices, the discount is 3.7% or EUR 640 million.
The downsizing pact
.On paper, there are still some ten days left to take up Mps's offer, should the postponement of the deadline be confirmed. But several signs seem to herald that the road to Siena is now downhill. Meanwhile, because the 'hard core' of shareholders at Piazzetta Cuccia has crumbled, now representing only 6.91% of the capital. It is true that this is only a consultation agreement, but in February, with a share strengthened to 11.87%, that same hard core had rejected Mps' offer, calling it inadequate.
The downsizing of the shareholders' agreement therefore reshuffles the map of Mediobanca's shareholders, and with it the map of possible accessions. Lovaglio, who has made the offer's effectiveness conditional on the attainment of at least 35% of Piazzetta Cuccia's capital, can count on the support of Delfin and the Caltagirone group, owners of almost 30% of Mediobanca, and to whom almost all the securities contributed to the Ops so far, amounting to 28.7% of the capital, refer.
