Santander and Unicredit they are about to abandon negotiations aimed at creating a 5,3 billion euro European asset management hub. The cause would be linked to the uncertainties deriving from Brexit.
This is what was announced by the Financial Times according to which the failure of the deal, which would have given birth to a giant with around 400 billion in assets under management, comes after about 20 months of negotiations between Pioneer (the asset management company of the Unicredit group) and Santander Asset Management. According to the FT, the recent change at the top of the Italian bank with the farewell of CEO Federico Ghizzoni also played a role in the matter.
The British newspaper quotes an insider as saying: “Many things have changed since the deal was previously announced. The general context has evolved, with a new CEO joining Unicredit and recently with Brexit”.
But it is not the only novelty coming from the "new Unicredit” branded Jean Pier Mustier. The Board of Unicredit has in fact approved the start of "a profound revision of the strategy under the group under the guidance of the new managing director Jean Pierre Mustier". It will concern "all the main areas of the bank in order to strengthen and optimize the capital endowment, improve its profitability, guarantee the evolution of business activities and maintain the flexibility necessary to seize all value generation opportunities". All of the bank's assets, without exception, will be subject to the "same careful and disciplined capital management and any opportunity to generate incremental value, potentially including through divestitures, will be evaluated".
Precisely at this juncture, the bank announced thethe sale of 10% of FinecoBank through an accelerated bookbuilding of ordinary shares aimed at institutional investors. Unicredit, which currently holds 65%, specifies a note, "will in any case continue to maintain an absolute majority stake". At current market values, 10% of Fineco is worth just under 350 million euros. The final value of the operation, closed successfully, is 328 million.
On Piazza Affari, the stock closed the session with a 2,9% red.
