UniCredit to hold an informative board meeting today on the risk outlook and M&A scenarios

There is anticipation ahead of UniCredit’s extraordinary board meeting, scheduled for this afternoon.

The meeting, which is expected to be of an informative nature with no formal decisions on the agenda, will reportedly be devoted to a series of updates from UniCredit’s CEO, Andrea Orcel, on the group’s key issues, and to a broad overview of M&A banking scenarios, including assessments of the status of transactions in which UniCredit is directly involved and the major manoeuvres currently underway in the sector, both in Italia and across the rest of Europe. Topics include the BdM deal, in which Gae Aulenti is involved as a potential buyer; the Commerzbank deal in Germany, where the bank is ready to convert its derivatives; and other potential transactions in which the bank led by Andrea Orcel is not directly involved but is an interested observer.

Today’s meeting, which was reported yesterday by *Il Sole 24 Ore*, comes at a particularly turbulent time for the Italian market, fuelled by Intesa Sanpaolo’s takeover bid for MPS, which is shifting the balance of power around Mediobanca and Generali. It is precisely Mediobanca – in which UniCredit holds a 9 per cent stake – and, in particular, Banca Generali that represent one of the possible points of connection with the major manoeuvres currently taking place in the asset management sector.