UniCredit launches 10 bn all-share bid for Banco BPM

(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 25 - UniCredit said on Monday that it has launched an all-share offer for domestic rival Banco BPM worth 10,086,832,606 euros.
    UniCredit said in a statement that it is offering 6,657 euros for each share, a slight premium on Friday's closing price of 6,644 euros.
    The Italian lender explained that the purchase, which would be an all-stock deal, would allow it to "further boost its role as a leading pan-European banking group." UniCredit will present the document on the offer to stock-market regulator CONSOB within the next 20 days.
    Under the acquisition of Banco BPM, which has long been a potential buyout target, UniCredit would become the third-largest lender in Europe for market capitalization, according to a note announcing the all-share offer.
    "Europe needs stronger and larger banks that help it develop its economy and compete against all the other main economic blocks", the CEO of UniCredit Andrea Orcel said in the statement.
    Orcel also went on to say that UniCredit's position in German lender Commerzbank "is an investment" which "has time to mature".
    The offer for Banco BPM comes during an impasse in UniCredit's efforts to buy its German rival - an acquisition opposed by the government in Berlin.
    In September, UniCredit increased its stake in Commerzbank to 21% and filed a request to increase the holding to up to 29.9%.
    Earlier that month, the Italian lender had acquired a 9% stake in Commerzbank, including half from the German government.
    Meanwhile, earlier this month Banco BPM made an offer for asset manager Anima in a potential 1.6 billion euro deal and then bought a 5% share in bailed-out rival Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS). (ANSA).