Intesa Sanpaolo launched the assault on Ps with a maxi offer of over 30 billion of euros through which the CEO of Intesa Sanpaolo, Carlo Messina, intends to strengthen itself in Italy, but also in Europe.
If the offer is successful, it will create a two-trillion-euro wealth management bank, managing approximately €1.700 trillion in financial assets, over 27 million clients, and a network of 21.000 advisors. Not only that, with the acquisition of Siena—as part of the joint operation with Unipol that will take over the MPS brand and 635 branches of the Siena-based bank—Intesa will also become the second largest bank in the Eurozone by capitalization on the stock exchange, the third in Europe. Let's do some math.
Bank Capitalization: USA vs. Europe, No Contest
Three Spanish, two Italian, one British, one Swiss, one French, one Dutch, and one Finnish. This is the current geography of the top ten European banks by market capitalization. Only one of them, Britain's HSBC, comes close to the heights reached by the giants of the American banking sector; the rest are abysmal. Just consider that JP Morgan, alone, is worth 833 billion dollars, or approximately 720 billion euros, a figure higher than the market capitalization of top four European banks combinedThe distance shortens if we look at the market cap of Bank of America (380 billion dollars, approximately 328 billion euros) and Morgan Stanley (334 billion dollars, approximately 289 billion euros), but the road to bridging the gap with the star-spangled institutions is still very long.
European Banks: Ranking by Market Capitalization
Let's get back to the rankings. At the top of the continental top 10, untouched by all the others, is the British bank. hsbc, with a market capitalization of over 273 billion euros. In second place, abysmally behind the first, we find the Spanish Banco Santander with its 158 billion market cap. Switzerland comes in third. ubs, whose shares, after the turbulence at the beginning of the year, have gained almost 30% in the last three months, bringing its market capitalization above 124 billion euros.
BBVA and Unicredit They are playing for the wooden medal, but Spain beats Italy by a hair: 109 billion euros of market cap for the former, 108 for the latter.
In sixth place we find the first and only French bank in the top 10, namely BNP Paribas, with a market capitalization of 102 billion. Seventh and just below the 100 billion euro mark (at 97,65 billion), Intesa San Paolo. We go down a very high step and in eighth place we return to Spain with CaixaBank (79,05%), followed by Dutch Ing (75,05 billion). Closing the ranking Nordea Bank with 54,4 billion.
With Intesa + Mps the podium changes
The European ranking would change substantially if the operation launched by Intesa Sanpaolo on MPS were to be successful. In this case, the resulting group would reach a stock market capitalization that would reach nearly 130 billion euros: to the 97,65 billion of Intesa we should add the 30,7 billion market cap of Monte of the Paschi. Ca'de Sass would therefore arrive at the third place in Europe, displacing UBS, and second in the Eurozone, after Banco Santander.
And what if Banco Bpm were to make it in the end? After Intesa's offer, the possibility seems remote, but not impossible. In this case, the bank resulting from the merger of equals between the two institutions would have a market capitalization of over €51 billion, considering the €20,7 billion market cap of Piazza Meda. This level would put it on a par with institutions of the caliber of Deutsche Bank (51,1 billion), Crédit Agricole (49,9 billion) e Societe Generale (44,48 billion). Finally, if Unicredit also decided to enter the second phase of the Italian banking game, perhaps returning to the charge against Banco Bpm, the rankings would be turned upside down again. But here, at least for now, we are talking about fantasiko.
