By Valentina Za
MILAN (Reuters) -UniCredit is ready to sit down with Credit Agricole (OTC:), a spokesperson for the Italian bank said in a LinkedIn post after the French lender increased its potential stake in acquisition target Unicredit (BIT:) , BPM Bank. .
UniCredit's bid for its smaller peer led Credit Agricole to say on Friday it had entered into derivatives that would increase its stake in BPM to 15% from 9.9% once the European Central Bank gives the green light.
“Yesterday's news about Credit Agricole's increased participation in BPM does not change anything for UniCredit,” said the UniCredit spokesperson on the social network LinkedIn.
“We were always willing to negotiate with CA as this would have been necessary whatever the size of their shareholding.”
Sources familiar with the French bank's strategy have told Reuters that Credit Agricole's objective is to protect the commercial associations that allow it to sell its products in Italy. Credit Agricole has ruled out a full purchase of BPM, of which it is the largest shareholder.
“UniCredit's early decision made Credit Agricole's investment more expensive and complicated. BPM shareholders should not welcome this development,” said the UniCredit spokesperson.
Last month, UniCredit claimed a place at Italy's banking consolidation table by launching an unsolicited 10 billion euro ($11 billion) bid for Banco BPM.
The move thwarted the Rome government's plans to negotiate a merger between BPM and state-backed Monte dei Paschi di Siena. Both banks are associated with the fund manager Anima Holding, which Banco BPM is in the process of acquiring.
On Saturday, sources told Reuters that Unicredit had obtained informal backing from the Rome government before announcing its larger stake in Banco BPM.
UniCredit's spokesperson warned BPM shareholders that they should be wary of a possible combination of BPM with Credit Agricole's Italian business, or any attempt to merge BPM with Monte dei Paschi.
A bid for Monte dei Paschi is a possible defense strategy for BPM, which has rejected UniCredit's offer as too cheap.
“Credit Agricole's likely options would be to merge BPM with Credit Agricole Italia (on terms attractive to Credit Agricole) or face a complicated combination with Monte dei Paschi. Both routes would destroy value for BPM shareholders,” the UniCredit spokesperson said. = 0.9463 euros)
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