“We are working to close, it still takes some time but I am confident”. This was stated by the managing director of the Banco Popolare, Pier Francesco Saviotti, regarding the merger talks with bpm on the sidelines of a conference organized by Fabi.
Saviotti ruled out that an agreement could be reached this weekend, but hoped that it could be closed for the next: "Let's hope - he replied to reporters - we are working, we are close, there are some things to fix but I am confident" .
The manager then assured that “there will never be a capital increase” to achieve merging with Bpm.
Finally, Saviotti underlined that in the confrontation he had with the ECB on the integration project, "everything went well".
The managing director of Bpm, Giuseppe Castagna also spoke on the issue of the merger. “Let's work, let's move forward. In my opinion it is useless to rush, we are working towards that goal”. However, Castagna admits that the wedding with Banco is currently the only path taken by Bpm ("If we have continued along this line, this is the indication", he clarified) and rejects the idea that the ECB has set ' to the operation (“I don't know how the stakes came out”, he underlined, specifying that, for example on governance, “no precise indications” came from the ECB”). To the central bank, he added, "we presented the operation, what I said to the market I also said to the ECB".
Meanwhile, today at mid-morning the stock on the stock exchange of Banco Popolare gains 8,6%, to 7,00 euros, while that of Banca Popolare di Milano travels up by 4,9%, to 0,617 euros.
