Intesa Sanpaolo has completed the choosing your own financial advisors in relation to the voluntary public exchange offer for all the ordinary shares of Ubi Banca, which as is now known was launched on 17 February. In particular, Mediobanca – Banca di Credito Finanziario SpA will act as Sole M&A and Lead Financial Advisor of the transaction and will coordinate the related activities with the other financial advisors JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley & Co. International plc., UBS Investment Bank and Equita Sim SpA and relations with the financial markets.
UBI, on the other hand, has decided to field Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse which, in addition to evaluating the offer from Intesa Sanpaolo, will also have to identify possible alternative solutions for the bank led by Victor Massiah.
Meanwhile, while the operation has so far not been welcomed by the shareholders' agreement of Ubi Banca (even if half of the weight of the Lombard bank's capital is in the hands of large foreign funds, which are also shareholders of Intesa Sanpaolo), the probable Ubi-Intesa marriage is meeting the applause of the markets: after the rally of both banks in the days following the communication (later partially nullified by the losses due to the coronavirus), the positive judgments of Moody's, Fitch and Exane Bnp Paribas, who confirmed or raised their ratings and target prices on Intesa, Ubi and also Bper, involved in the risk.
