Banca Mediolanum sees no impact from Mediobanca bid for Banca Generali
MILAN, June 10 (Reuters) - Italian asset manager Banca Mediolanum (BMED.MI), opens new tab sees no impact on its business whatever the outcome of merchant bank Mediobanca's (MDBI.MI), opens new tab bid for private bank Banca Generali (BGN.MI), opens new tab, its CEO Massimo Doris said on Tuesday.
"Whether they merge or not does not affect Banca Mediolanum either way. We operate in a sector that is performing very well," Doris told Sky TG24.
Mediobanca in April proposed buying Banca Generali from insurer Generali (GASI.MI), opens new tab as it seeks to stave off a buyout bid from Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) (BMPS.MI), opens new tab.
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Reuters
19 hours ago
- Reuters
Mediobanca's Nagel bets on final makeover act to fend off Italian rival
MILAN, June 13 (Reuters) - Mediobanca ( opens new tab shareholders will vote on Monday on the final act of an overhaul its CEO Alberto Nagel began three decades ago to turn a bank born to fund Italy Inc's postwar reconstruction, into its No. 2 wealth manager. To stave off a hostile bid from state-backed Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) ( opens new tab, Nagel in April proposed buying private bank Banca Generali ( opens new tab. His plan, part of a game of chess to reshape Italian finance, crucially involves severing Mediobanca's historic ties with the target's owner, insurance giant Assicurazioni Generali ( opens new tab. It is a bold bet to protect Mediobanca's independence and Nagel's own legacy at a pivotal time for Italian banking. The 60-year-old keen off-piste skier and tennis fan, joined Mediobanca in 1991, dedicating his entire career to the bank. He began his quest to transform Mediobanca at the end of that decade when he managed to convince co-founder Enrico Cuccia that Mediobanca should start managing the money its clients pocketed from transactions Nagel handled as head of investment banking. Made CEO in 2008, Nagel set out to steer the bank away from its role as the lynchpin of Italian capitalism, sitting at the heart of an intricate web of corporate shareholdings. "That role was necessary when Italy's capital market was small and closed," Nagel told Reuters last week. "Once outside capitals started flowing in, and the big foreign banks arrived, I knew Mediobanca had to transform," he said, speaking at the bank's headquarters, a 16th century aristocratic mansion nested behind Milan's La Scala opera theatre. Now, Nagel is marketing the proposed 6.3 billion euro Banca Generali deal using a 13% stake in its parent Generali as an alternative to the MPS offer, betting it could render Mediobanca too big for its smaller rival to swallow. He also hopes it will allow him to win over two investors who have long been a thorn in his side and are now backing MPS' takeover attempt - Delfin, the holding company of late Ray-Ban owner Leonardo Del Vecchio, and construction tycoon Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone. Both, who are also major Generali shareholders, have repeatedly clashed with Nagel and accused him of relying excessively on income from the insurer while holding back its growth, which Nagel rejects. In the latest twist of the years-long confrontation, Delfin and Caltagirone have recently become the top shareholders in Mediobanca's suitor MPS. Nagel, who used to drive a Fiat Panda, rarely gives interviews and generally keeps a low profile, has come to embody the understated power and influence of the institution whose identity he is now fighting to preserve. Though one of his first moves as CEO was to secure retail funding for a bank that had no depositors, and he has steadily grown the lender's consumer finance business, Nagel sees a culture clash in a tie-up with a commercial bank like MPS. Still, he broke with Mediobanca's past in 2013, outlining plans to sell all of its corporate holdings except for the Generali stake, and to expand the investment banking business abroad, eventually buying up boutiques such as London-based Arma Partners. The wealth management business, meanwhile, progressed only slowly, taking off in earnest only in 2015-2016 when Mediobanca bought out its partner in a joint venture and made a series of acquisitions. Nagel hunted for years for a wealth management target, but the sector commanded big valuations and returns from the Generali stake he would dispose of to fund a deal were hard to match. Banca Generali would boost wealth management to account for 45% of revenues, from a quarter at present, and 50% of profits from one fifth now. "We'll achieve what would have otherwise taken us eight to 10 years," Nagel said when presenting the deal. Monday's vote will show whether his bank can ward off MPS and make that leap, but he can already count on some investors. "Mediobanca swapping the (Assicurazioni) Generali shares for Banca Generali is such a tectonic shift," said Cole Smead, CEO of Arizona-based Smead Capital Management, who welcomed the plan as an overdue modernisation of Mediobanca's capital structure. "They're cutting the umbilical cord, for us that's a good thing," Smead said. ($1 = 0.8753 euros)
Reuters
a day ago
- Reuters
Italian prosecutors probe government sale of Monte dei Paschi stake, sources say
MILAN, June 13 (Reuters) - Italian prosecutors are looking into the government's sale of a 15% stake in Monte dei Paschi di Siena ( opens new tab last November to a small group of investors, and had police fetch documents relating to the transaction, two sources with knowledge of the matter said. The economy ministry sold the stake through an accelerated bookbuilding (ABB) procedure. The sources did not provide details on what part of the process is being probed. The Treasury was looking to build a stable core of domestic shareholders in Monte dei Paschi, which it rescued in 2017 and had been returning to private hands, sources told Reuters before the November stake sale. Banco BPM took a 5% stake, fund manager Anima Holding took 3% and construction tycoon Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone and the holding company of late Ray-Ban owner Leonardo Del Vecchio each took 3.5% of the Tuscan bank. The ABB process was handled by Banca Akros, the investment banking unit of Banco BPM. Banco BPM, Banca Akros and Delfin were not immediately available for a comment. A representative Caltagirone declined to comment. The sale was carried out at a premium to market prices, which was good for taxpayers, despite the fact that fewer investors than normal were involved in the process. Usually such placements involve more bidders but offer a discount. Previous placements of Monte dei Paschi shares by the Treasury had brought onboard dozens of foreign funds as investors. Since the November placement, Caltagirone and Delfin have increased their respective stakes becoming the top two shareholders in Monte dei Paschi. Italian banking is seeing a raft of takeover offers, causing upheaval in the sector. Italy's second-biggest bank UniCredit ( opens new tab has bid to buy smaller rival Banco BPM, meeting opposition from the government. Banco BPM has bought Anima. Monte dei Paschi has bid for Mediobanca ( opens new tab which in turn has bid for private bank Banca Generali ( opens new tab. ($1 = 0.8671 euros)
Reuters
a day ago
- Reuters
Breakingviews - Mediobanca great escape has more twists ahead
LONDON, June 12 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Judging by the Mediobanca ( opens new tab stock price, CEO Alberto Nagel has pulled off an M&A defence coup. His move to snap up a rival wealth group has helped boost the 16-billion-euro Italian bank's shares, taking their price above the level of a hostile offer from Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena ( opens new tab (MPS). Yet Nagel can't sit easy: key votes and his own investors complicate matters. After MPS made an unsolicited offer for Mediobanca in January, the Milan-based group's boss put together an alternative path with a 6-billion-euro plan to buy Banca Generali ( opens new tab, a wealth manager owned by insurer Assicurazioni Generali ( opens new tab. By moving to create a large money-management business, Nagel has boosted his stock. Mediobanca now trades around 9% above the value of the all-share MPS offer. One interpretation is that investors are excited about the prospect of an enlarged wealth player if the Banca Generali deal goes through. One complicating factor, however, is that some of Nagel's biggest shareholders are not yet endorsing the Banca Generali purchase, which requires 50% approval at a June 16 Mediobanca shareholder meeting. Billionaire Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone, who owns 10% of Mediobanca and 5% of MPS, has said that Nagel's deal lacks industrial logic. He has also been buying stock ahead of the meeting, which may partly explain why Mediobanca's shares have risen. Then there's Delfin, which owns nearly 20% of Mediobanca and a tenth of MPS. If that vehicle and Caltagirone oppose the Banca Generali acquisition, Nagel would need a minimum 60% vote turnout and the support of most other shareholders to carry the day. He may feel OK about that risk, since other shareholders have backed the deal. But the next question is whether the insurer Assicurazioni Generali, which owns 50% of the similarly named wealth manager, will agree to sell to Mediobanca and at what price. The slim current 9% premium versus Banca Generali's undisturbed price, and the fact that Nagel is offering to pay in kind through Mediobanca's shares in Generali, make the deal vulnerable to a cash counteroffer from a rival suitor. And Generali cannot be seen to give a sweet deal to Mediobanca, its biggest shareholder. The third challenge is MPS itself. True, CEO Luigi Lovaglio seems to be in a tight spot. Just to get its offer up to the current value of Mediobanca, MPS might need to raise its 15-billion-euro bid by over 1 billion euros. Yet by paying much more for his larger rival, Lovaglio risks chasing his tail: his own share price would probably fall, depressing the value of the bid. Yet Lovaglio has other options. He currently wants two-thirds of investors to accept his soon-to-be-launched tender offer, a level that would allow him to merge the two banks and enjoy all the deal benefits. But he could settle for a lower threshold of 50%, or below. And if Delfin and Caltagirone backed him, he would already be at 30%. Such a move would be sub-optimal. With a lower take-up, Lovaglio would be under pressure to buy the rest, and might not get some or even most of the deal's synergies, which include 300 million euros of cost savings as well as tax benefits. Yet he could still exert control over his target. Mediobanca, meanwhile, would get the disruption of a takeover, and a more complex governance. Nagel's great escape is not yet complete. Follow @Unmack1, opens new tab on X
