(Bloomberg) – Unicredit Spa made a surprise of a new move in the fight for the dominance of the Italian financial system, discovering a minority share in Spa Asicurazioni generals.
Most reading from Bloomberg
The bank based in Milan confirmed the purchase on Sunday, after earlier press reports. Unicredit emphasized that his 4.1% share in the general “pure financial investment”, without strategic interest in the insurer. However, the move can provide the executive director Andrea Orcel with tools to improve his primary goal: acquisition of Banco BPM SPA.
Unicredit began to accumulate a stake in the general as part of his portfolio management in September, long before the Banco BPM offer and the next wave of Italian agreement, they said that people were familiar with the issue, who asked them not to identify themselves. Recent events have encouraged the bank to accelerate the purchase, and the Orcel could now use the share of almost 2 billion euros ($ 2.1 billion) to play an active role in a complicated network of agreement and cross -country gatherings, using its impact to obtain support for their own plans .
M & A chessboard
Generals find themselves in the center of a long -standing struggle for power among their greatest investors, who are themselves involved in a series of mergers and acquisitions that could transform the Italian financial industry: the Milan Investment Bank of the Mediobanac Spa on the one hand and the family of one billionaire of the late Patriarch Leonard del Vecchia and Francesca and Francesca Gaetano Caltagirone on the other side.
Two clans are also the main investors at Monte dei Pachi di Siena Spa, a lender of a supported state who wants to take over Mediobanac. The success of the offer would finally allow the Giorgia Meloni to understand his vision of creating a third major Italian banking group. The previous plan to combine Monte Paschi with Banco BPM has interfered with Unicredit’s unwanted offer for the latter, to the irritation of Rome.
Although the generals themselves are not an active party on the M&A chessboard, its investors, along with the Italian government, have two other key movements that are closely monitored.
Generali -Lion Board decided last week not to draw up a list of candidates for election in the management body, increasing pressure on shareholders to renew the company leadership. Caltagyron, a construction tycoon, has repeatedly sought to influence the insurer strategy and clashed with his higher management in the past.
