BPM may announce M&A operations at shareholders' meeting on 11 April
Banca Popolare di Milano (BPM) the Milan-based listed cooperative bank, could announce M&A operations at its shareholders' meeting on 11 April, Italian language daily Milano Finanza reported. The report cited unspecified sources who said that it was likely that BPM would make a major announcement on M&A at the meeting.
The report said that shareholders are also likely to vote on turning BPM into a joint stock company, in line with Italian legislation designed to encourage medium-sized cooperative banks to merge. The report noted that BPM has already publicly stated that the lender will look to turn itself into a joint stock company well before the 18 month grace period granted by the government for cooperative lenders to make the switch.
The item added that BPM could appoint advisors to carry out a merger right after the shareholders' meeting. The report said that Banco Popolare, another listed cooperative lender, is the favourite to be the merger partner.
BPM has a market cap of EUR 4.19bn and Banco Popolare EUR 5.33bn.
Source Milano Finanza daily edition