UniCredit SpA headquarters logo on Saturday, January 22, 2022 in Milan, Italy.
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Italian lender UniCredit offered on Monday to buy a domestic rival. Banco BPM The company insists it is separate from its pursuit of the German bank, which it said was acquired for about 10 billion euros ($10.5 billion). Commerzbank.
If completed, the transaction will bring together two of Italy's largest financial institutions. UniCredit said in a statement early Monday that it would offer 6.657 euros per share. This represents a slight premium to Friday's closing price of 6.644 euros.
UniCredit said the all-share deal will allow the bank to “further strengthen its role as a leading pan-European banking group.”
Monday's news follows a flurry of mergers and acquisitions announced in Europe's banking sector this summer. The industry has been considered ripe for consolidation for years, and cash-rich UniCredit is often cited as a potential acquisition target.
In September, UniCredit filed an application to increase its stake in German financial institution Commerzbank to about 21%, increasing its stake to a maximum of 29.9%. Earlier that month, the Italian bank acquired a 9% stake in Commerzbank, half of which was acquired from the German government.
The German government has not yet celebrated the possibility of consolidation, with Chancellor Olaf Scholz saying in late September comments reported by Reuters that “unfriendly attacks and hostile takeovers are not good for banks.” said.
Commerzbank's largest shareholder, the Berlin government, has a 12% stake after bailing out the bank during the 2008 financial crisis and selling an initial 4.5% position in early September.
—CNBC's April Roach and Ruxandra Iordache contributed to this article.
Correction: This story has been updated to reflect the correct spelling of Banco BPM.
