BPM may seek merger with BPER to ward off foreign takeover
Banca Popolare di Milano (BPM), the listed Italian cooperative bank, could seek a merger with peer BPER to ward off a takeover by a foreign bank, Italian language daily Il Messaggero reported. The unsourced report said that BPM is considering the move in response to government's plans to turn cooperative banks into joint stock companies with the aim of encouraging mergers among Italy's medium-sized cooperative banks.
The report said that a number of foreign banks are believed to be interested in BPM including French banks BNP Paribas and Credit Agricole, German bank Deutsche Bank and Spanish bank Santander.
The report said that a BPM/BPER merger could then look to Banca Carige to join the merged entity. The report said that BPM would consider a merger with Banco Popolare if its preferred option of an aggregation with BPER was unavailable.
The report said that BPM's attempts to merger with BPER could be thwarted by BPER eying a merger with listed Italian cooperative lender Banca Popolare di Sondrio.
BPM has a market cap of EUR 3.456bn and BPER EUR 3.27bn.
Il Messaggero