Mergers and non-mergers, merger tests and counter-current choices on branches. We can thus summarize a decidedly rough 2021 for the banking sector, starting with the big deal Intesa Sanpaolo-Ubi, passing through the no of UniCredit at Mef for Monte dei Paschi di Siena and for the offer on Carige by Bper, with the latter also protagonist in the operation of the institute led by Carlo Messina through the acquisition of the Ubi branches left out. Without forgetting the fusion of Credit Agricole e Creval, an aggregation that now travels quickly and will end at the end of April 2022.
Those carried out in 2021 were successful or unsuccessful operations that have exposed the transformation of the sector in Italy: meanwhile, with the decrease in the number of large banks, the “healthy” and “necessary” competition often invoked is in fact reduced by the president of the ABI Antonio Patuelli. But above all, he continues inexorably the impoverishment of banking institutions in the center and south of the country, now all moved to the North. If, for example, the transaction between UniCredit and Mps had gone through, the inevitable move from Siena to Milan of the institute’s headquarters would have led to a further impoverishment in central Italy not so much of the presence of the bank itself, but of governance and its links with local families and businesses.
In Central Italy it remains among the big ones Bper, now struggling with Carige, which has decided to move a little against the tide compared to other banks. Because while everyone has undertaken, some more or less, the path of cuts and closures of branches in the perspective of a bank-customer relationship that is increasingly tech and less physical, In 2021, the Emilian institute preferred to further strengthen itself in the area with the acquisition of the Ubi branches that remained out of the operation with Intesa. The result is that it has absorbed 616, reaching 1,715 and increasing the operating points from just 9 to 139, placing itself in 19 regions from the previous 13. As for Carige, on 14 December Bper presented the Fitd with a non-binding offer to acquire the Ligurian institute, of which the Interbank Deposit Protection Fund and the Voluntary Scheme hold 79.99% of the share. At the moment the answer, but these are indiscretions, is that of not wanting to grant the Emilian bank the exclusivity on the deal, leaving room for any other interested banks, including Agricultural credit, despite its ceo Maioli has in fact denied any interest in the dossier.
The possible merger Bper-Carigemoreover, it would also have a further impact on the sector: it would give life to that famous one third banking hub of which there is much talk and which could also see the participation of the Popolare di Sondrio, which yesterday became a Spa with the green light by a very large majority of the assembly. A group that would position itself as a direct ‘opponent’ of Banco Bpm and that, returning to the discussion on competition, it would give the market a positive shock.
In the South the game of the great project of one remains open, and who knows for how long bank of the South, but which is currently at stake with Mediocredito Centrale, which since last March has created the Group, in which the subsidiaries Banca Popolare di Bari and Cassa di Risparmio di Orvieto converge. But to date, everything is at a standstill and only the red accounts of the Bari-based bank are moving and weighing on those of Mcc.
Scepter for the operation of the year clearly goes to Intesa Sanpaolo, which carried out the merger with Ubi on 12 April last, after having launched an offer in February of the previous year and having found a positive response only in the summer, between the end of July and beginning of August 2020. One maneuver which saw the birth of a group with almost 50 billion capitalization, third in Europe behind Bnp Paribas and Santander and which involved 80 thousand workers.
The negotiation, which later failed, was more complex UniCredit and Mef for the acquisition of Mps. Started last July, at the end of October it stopped due to lack of convergence on the requests of the institute led by Andrea Orcel, which basically provided for the acquisition of the ‘good’ part of the Sienese institute, leaving the sword of Damocles of 8 thousand redundancies and a rich portfolio of impaired loans to hang on the state.
Precisely these conditions, which would have cost € 8.5 billion to taxpayers between tax benefits and a capital increase, have made it less painful to stop the negotiations, but now Monte dei Paschi is faced with the need for an extension from Brussels to find any new buyers who release the Treasury from the stake held by 2022.