(Bloomberg) — Bankers in Italy are meeting at the annual Assiom Forex conference in Turin to discuss the future of their industry, which has been hit by a wave of consolidation, as lenders are seeking to deploy excess capital and diversify revenue with interest rates poised to fall.
M&A activity kicked off in early November when lender Banco BPM SpA launched a bid for asset manager Anima Holding SpA, only to become a target itself a few weeks later when rival UniCredit SpA made an offer. Yet another lender, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, subsequently proposed to buy competitor Mediobanca SpA and earlier this month Modena-based BPER Banca SpA made an unsolicited all-share bid for Banca Popolare di Sondrio SpA.
Banco BPM to Meet Investors (10:10 a.m. CET)
Banco BPM is set to meet investors in Paris and Milan after it set new targets for revenue and profit in the coming years as it seeks to defend itself against UniCredit’s unsolicited takeover bid, Chairman Massimo Tononi said on the sideline of the event.
Tononi noted that conditions aren’t right for him to pursue merger talks with UniCredit given the level at which Banco BPM shares are trading. Banco BPM’s shares have risen 25% since UniCredit’s €10 billion bid in November, which has given the lender a €13.3 billion valuation.
Tononi said he’s confident that the value created by the bank in recent years will be enough to convince Credit Agricole SA, Banco BPM’s biggest investor, to keep supporting an “independent bank.”
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