2023-10-20 18:16:12
The Italian Treasury said on Friday it had chosen UBS, Jefferies and Clifford Chance as financial and legal advisers for the privatization of bailed-out bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS).
Commitments agreed with European Union competition authorities at the time of MPS’s €5.4 billion ($5.72 billion) bailout in 2017 bind Rome to the possible sale of its 64% stake. in the bank.
After a failed attempt to sell the Tuscan lender to peer UniCredit in 2021, Italy agreed to Brussels’ new privatization terms that were never fully disclosed.
However, Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti said this week that MPS might return to private ownership by the end of next year.
Mr. Giorgetti and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni have both said in recent months that the government would try to boost competition among Italian banks with the privatization of MPS.
This raises the prospect of a potential deal with Banco BPM or BPER Banca, Italy’s third and fourth largest banks respectively, although both banks have repeatedly said they are not interested in MPS.
Given the absence of interested buyers in the short term, a deal to privatize MPS might be considered.
placement d’actions
is seen as the most likely option to reduce state ownership and work to secure reprivatization commitments, sources familiar with the matter told Archyde.com.
At current prices, the Treasury’s stake is worth almost 2 billion euros, slightly more than the 1.6 billion euros Rome injected into the bank as part of a wider capital increase of 2,000 euros. 5 billion euros finalized in the last quarter of last year.
The privatization of MPS is a key part of a sales program totaling 20-21 billion euros over the next three years, announced last month by the government to bring Italy’s debt, the second largest, under control. significant share of the eurozone as a proportion of gross domestic product (GDP).
Under a 2020 decree, the Treasury listed, among the options for privatizing MPS, an offer to institutional or small investors, including bank employees, as well as possible extraordinary operations such as a merger.
($1 = 0.9439 euros) (Editors: Gavin Jones and Richard Chang)
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