By Valentina Za
MILAN (Reuters) -UniCredit is ready to sit down with Credit Agricole, a spokesman for the Italian bank said in a LinkedIn post after the French lender increased its potential stake in Unicredit’s takeover target Banco BPM.
UniCredit’s bid for its smaller rival prompted Credit Agricole to say on Friday that it had entered into derivatives that would increase its stake in BPM from 9.9% to 15% once the European Central Bank gives the green light.
“Yesterday’s news about the increased importance of Credit Agricole in BPM does not change anything for UniCredit,” said UniCredit’s spokesperson on the social media network LinkedIn.
“We were always willing to negotiate with CA because this would have been necessary regardless of the size of their shareholding.”
Sources with knowledge of the French bank’s strategy told Reuters Credit Agricole that the focus is on protecting the commercial partnerships that allow it to sell its products in Italy. Credit Agricole has ruled out a complete buyout of BPM, of which it is the largest shareholder.
“UniCredit’s early move made Credit Agricole’s investment more expensive and complicated. BPM shareholders should not welcome this development,” the UniCredit spokesperson said.
UniCredit claimed a seat at the Italian banking consolidation table last month by making an unsolicited 10 billion euro ($11 billion) bid for Banco BPM.
This move thwarted plans by the Rome government to effect a merger between BPM and the state-backed Monte dei Paschi di Siena. Both banks work together with fund manager Anima Holding, which Banco BPM currently wants to acquire.
On Saturday, sources told Reuters that Credit Agricole had received informal support from Rome’s government before announcing its increased stake in Banco BPM.
The UniCredit spokesperson warned BPM shareholders to be wary of a possible combination of BPM with the Italian company Credit Agricole, or any attempt to merge BPM with Monte dei Paschi.
A bid for Monte dei Paschi is a possible defense strategy for BPM, which rejected UniCredit’s bid as too cheap.
“Credit Agricole’s likely options would be to merge BPM with Credit Agricole Italia (on attractive terms for Credit Agricole) or face a complicated combination with Monte dei Paschi. Either route would destroy BPM’s shareholder value,” the spokesperson said from UniCredit. = 0.9463 euros)
(Reporting by Valentina Za, Editing by Gavin Jones)
