Unicredit would have sent to the Consob la request suspend the offer on Banco Bpm in order to buy time to negotiate the very tough requirements imposed by the Government in the context of the golden power procedure. The Commission now has 15 days to respond, although the response is expected this week. The request was confirmed by sources close to the dossier.
Unicredit asks Consob for time: the reasons for the request
CEO Andrea Orcel would like to find a way to overcome the government's resistance and mitigate the constraints established by the Executive in the context of the procedure Golden Power on the exit from Russia, on maintaining the levels of Italian securities in Anima's portfolio and on the deposit-investment ratio. To do so, it needs time. In fact, it is an uphill road even after the first technical meeting held on May 15th, with Palazzo Chigi that seems intent on continuing straight ahead and not backing down a millimeter. A position that has raised several criticisms, taking into account the fact that in none of the other operations underway has the Government demonstrated such interventionism.
And this would be precisely the pretext found by Unicredit to proceed with the request on the basis of theArticle 102 paragraph 6b of the Consolidated Law of finance, which gives the possibility of suspending a stock market offer "for a term not exceeding thirty days, in the event that new or previously undisclosed facts arise which do not allow the recipients to reach a well-founded opinion on the offer”.
Unicredit-Banco Bpm, what can happen
The Ops, announced at the end of November, is started on April 28th and will end on June 23rd. To acquire the entire capital of Piazza Meda, the bank led by Andrea Orcel has put on the table 0,175 shares for each Banco Bpm share, with an implicit price that at current stock market prices expresses a discount of over 6% on the institution's shares.
In the event that Consob were to agree to the request to suspend the takeover bid on Banco Bpm, Unicredit would be able to continue the dialogue undertaken with the Executive with greater peace of mind, having more time to reopen the issue. If, on the other hand, the Authority were to say no, the comparison will continue anyway, but the bank will have to decide whether to withdraw the offer on Piazza Meda or not no later than June 30th.
EU Antitrust: decision by June 19
Meanwhile also EU Antitrust is taking its time. The authority has announced that it has been extended to 19nd June the indicative deadline for the examination of the operation, previously set for June 4. The new deadline is still within the deadline set for the operation, whose adhesion period will end on June 23.
How Unicredit's takeover bid for Banco Bpm is going
On Friday, at the end of the third week of the offer, subscriptions to UniCredit's takeover bid on Banco Bpm were still minimal. The Banco Bpm shares tendered to the exchange offer were in fact 251.749 in total, equal to 0,016615% of the capital, according to communications from Borsa Italiana.
