Mps, the Treasury is studying a 3 billion increase before the move to Unicredit

MILANO – Unicredit has set the neutrality of the capital operation as a condition for the acquisition of a selected perimeter of Monte dei Paschi’s activities and the Treasury is considering a capital increase of up to 3 billion euros for Mps precisely to strengthen its capital strength and make sure that the betrothed does not weigh on the potential spouse.

This is what the financial agency writes Bloomberg, according to which the Mef’s preferred option would be an option increase, which would allow Monte’s shareholders who intend to subscribe to the increase not to see themselves diluted. The amount of the recapitalization, still under discussion, will depend on the outcome of the due diligence that Unicredit is conducting on Mps, the assets that will be transferred and the exchange that will be established between the two banks’ securities. The institutes and the Treasury itself did not comment.

The structure of the transaction, from a financial point of view, could follow the merger between Bpm and Banco Popolare, a paper-to-paper marriage that was preceded by an increase in the Banco in order to consolidate its financial position and bring it into line with that of the most solid. Bpm. The Treasury, in exchange for its share, could receive Mps shares without voting rights, in order not to alter the governance balance of Unicredit but with the possibility of collecting a return from the participation in the future, given the estimated cost of about ten of billions to center the conditions set by the CEO Andrea Orcel to close the game.

Both the risky loans of Siena – currently equal to 4.2 billion euro according to the assessments of Mps – and the extraordinary disputes will be excluded from the perimeter that will be transferred. A part of the branches in the South – especially in Sicily and Puglia – may not be of interest to CEO Orcel, while the fate of Siena’s general management and the brand has yet to be defined.

The size of the increase, according to one of the sources cited by Bloomberg, could be less than 3 billion, also considering the net tax benefit of 2.2 billion euros represented by the transformation of DTAs into tax credits. In any case, discussions are in the initial phase and detailed conditions, including for the increase, will only be finalized at the end of the due diligence.