Valentina the
MILAN (Reuters) – UniCredit is open to a partnership with Credit Agricole, the French lender said after increasing its stake in UniCredit's potential takeover target Banco BPM. said a spokesperson for the Italian bank in a post on Toin.
In the wake of UniCredit's bid for a peer, Credit Agricole announced on Friday that it had entered into a derivatives transaction that would increase its stake in BPM from 9.9% to 15% if the European Central Bank gives the green light.
“Yesterday's news regarding Crédit Agricole's increase in its stake in BPM does not change anything for UniCredit,” a UniCredit spokesperson said on the social media network LinkedIn.
“We were always prepared to negotiate with CA because we have to negotiate with CA regardless of the size of their shareholding.”
Credit Agricole is focused on protecting the commercial alliances that allow it to sell its products in Italy, people familiar with the French bank's strategy told Reuters. Credit Agricole has denied a full acquisition of BPM, its single largest shareholder.
“UniCredit's early moves have made Credit Agricole's investments more expensive and more complex. BPM shareholders should not welcome this development,” a UniCredit spokesperson said.
UniCredit last month launched a 10 billion euro ($11 billion) all-stock unsolicited bid for Banco BPM, winning a seat in Italy's banking merger.
The move undermined the Rome government's plans to broker a merger between BPM and the state-backed Monte dei Paschi di Siena. The two banks are partnering with fund manager Anima Holding, which Banco BPM is in the process of acquiring.
Sources told Reuters on Saturday that Credit Agricole had received unofficial support from the Rome government before announcing the increase in its stake in Banco BPM.
A UniCredit spokesperson warned BPM shareholders to be wary of a potential combination of BPM with Credit Agricole's Italian operations or an attempted merger between BPM and Monte dei Paschi. .
A bid for Monte dei Paschi is a possible defensive strategy for BPM, which has rejected UniCredit's offer as too low.
“Credit Agricole's possible options would be to merge BPM with Credit Agricole Italia (on terms attractive to Credit Agricole) or face a complex merger with Monte dei Paschi. Either route would destroy BPM's shareholder value,” a UniCredit spokesperson said. = 0.9463 euro)
(Reporting by Valentina Za; Editing by Gavin Jones)
