The Bpm stock soars: Bnp Paribas and Mediobanca could land in the capital

   After a drop of 21% in one month, the Bpm started the coverings. The funds and institutional investors who had sold in the past weeks are taking the opportunity to fill their positions before next week's shareholders' meeting: there is high tension in Piazza Meda and surprises may not be lacking.
   A rush to purchase (with a 9% leap in the share against the banking sector which rises by around 3,82%) which does not change the balance in view of the meeting: in fact they have the right to attend the meeting and vote shareholders who have been registered in the shareholders' register for at least 90 days before the date of the first call. On the technical reasons for the rebound (which in any case affects the entire banking sector with a rise of around 3,7%) the rumors are grafted on the interest of the French Bnp Paribas: this time it would be the men of Baudouin Prot to target Piazza Meda, after a few years ago the French of Crédit Mutuel had already tried to transform their stake in the Italian institute into something more.
   But the road that leads to Bnp Paribas is complex: it would involve, among other things, the transformation from popular company to joint-stock company. Bpm hastened to specify that it was unaware of any offer from the transalpine giant. But the swirl of names for the possible new bride of Bpm had already begun in recent days and reached Piazzetta Cuccia. The reasons? Mediobanca has a long liason with Bpm in the leasing sector and, despite the innovative network of the commercial bank CheBanca!, could benefit from the branches rooted in the Lombardy region of the institute led by Massimo Ponzellini. Especially since Mediobanca, participating in the consortium guaranteeing the capital increase, could find itself with a lot of unexercised rights: if things go on like this, the small shareholders could be expelled from the weight of a 1,2 billion recapitalization.
   The operation with Mediobanca "is not possible", said the general manager of Bpm Enzo Chiesa and the vice president of Mediobanca Dieter Rampl in unison. Meanwhile, analysts are once again indulging themselves in hypotheses about possible candidates: Banco Popolare, Ubi Banca but above all Bper, the eternal fiancée with whom the marriage had jumped down the aisle in 2007 (the deal, Equita analysts say, would make a lot of sense also from the point of view from an industrial point of view for both banks). Hypothesis strengthened by the presence in Bper of Fabrizio Viola, general manager in Bpm at the time of the attempted merger with Bper led by Roberto Mazzotta. The fact is that the game goes dark in which disagreements on the thorny issue of proxies for representation in the meeting (which on Bank of Italy's instructions must be increased from three to five) increase, discontent between the unions and the unanimous blame on Ponzellini, who is unable to manage the situation, strengthened. With the volatility of the stock tending to increase: BPM capitalizes 650 million euros on the Stock Exchange (-53% in the last 12 months alone) against a net worth of 3,8 billion at the end of 2010.