Banca Popolare Italiana has agreed to be acquired by Banco Popolare di Verona e Novara for E8.2 billion in a deal that will create Italy's biggest cooperative banking group, and the country's third largest retail banking group overall.
According to reports, the offer from BPVN is worth E12 per share of BPI, which is a premium of about 15% over BPI’s closing price on October 13. The combined group would have a market value of approximately E15 billion.
BPI found itself in a weakened financial position after it was embroiled in the ‘Italian banking scandal’ in 2005. BPI had been competing with the Dutch bank ABN Amro in its attempts to acquire its Italian rival Banca Antonveneta. However, the deal collapsed after BPI was accused of colluding with Italy’s central bank in order to unfairly disadvantage the foreign bid.
Bank of Italy governor Antonio Fazio departed in the wake of the scandal, but his replacement Mario Draghi has encouraged Italian banks to merge in order to protect themselves from foreign investors.
Banca Intesa and Sanpaolo IMI, two of the country’s top three banks, announced at the end of August that they are to merge.