UniCredit offers to buy rival Italian lender Banco BPM for $10.5 billion

cnbc.com:

Italian lender UniCredit on Monday offered to snap up its domestic rival Banco BPM for roughly 10 billion euros ($10.5 billion) in a move it says is separate from its pursuit of German bank Commerzbank.

The deal would, if completed, merge two of Italy's largest lenders. UniCredit said in a statement early Monday that it is offering 6.657 euros for each share — a slight premium on Friday's close price of 6.644 euros.

UniCredit said the purchase, which would be an all-stock deal, would allow the bank to «further strengthen its role as a leading pan-European banking group.»

Monday's news follows a flurry of merger and acquisition announcements in the European banking sector this year. The industry has been considered ripe for consolidation for years, with cash-rich UniCredit often cited as a possible acquirer.

In September, UniCredit increased its stake in German lender Commerzbank to around 21% and submitted a request to boost the holding to up to 29.9%. Earlier that month, the Italian bank had taken a 9% stake in Commerzbank, with half of this shareholding acquired from the German government.

The German government has yet to bless the potential union, with Chancellor Olaf Scholz stating that «unfriendly attacks, hostile takeovers are not a good thing for banks,» in late-September comments carried by Reuters.

The largest shareholder of Commerzbank, the Berlin administration, retains a 12% stake after rescuing the lender during the 2008 financial crisis and divesting 4.5% of its initial position in early September.

Earlier this month, meanwhile, Banco BPM itself made a bid for asset manager Anima in a possible 1.6-billion-euro deal, and just days later bought a 5% chunk of state-owned Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS).

UniCre