ECB authorizes MPS-Mediobanca merger and entry of Caltagirone and Brancadoro into the board of directors

The ECB has given the green light to the merger of Mediobanca into MPS and the other corporate reorganization operations of the group. The Sienese bank has announced that Frankfurt has also authorized the entry into the board of directors of Monte dei Paschi di Siena of Alessandro Caltagirone and Gianluca Brancadoro, the two minority candidates who have been waiting for months to complete the board.

The double authorization paves the way for the next steps of the Monte dei Paschi plan. The merger with Mediobanca may be brought to the attention of the meeting on 29 October, which has already been called to express its opinion on the public takeover and exchange offers on Banco Bpm and Banca Generali.

The ECB's authorization allows MPS to include the merger with Mediobanca in the meeting process already scheduled for 29 October. In fact, Siena shareholders will also have to express their opinion on the operations on Banco Bpm and Banca Generali.

The calendar is part of the complex reorganization of the group. Once the green light has been obtained from the assembly, MPS aims to launch the two offers in mid-December, while Intesa Sanpaolo's operation on MPS could at that point be in the final stages or already concluded.

Before the meeting, MPS should also bring to Consob the documents relating to the offers on Banco Bpm and Banca Generali. For these operations, requests were submitted to the various authorities involved, including the ECB, Bank of Italy, Ivass, Antitrust and the government for aspects related to Golden Power.

The second green light from the ECB concerns the governance of the Sienese bank. The Supervisory Authority positively concluded the suitability exam, the so-called fit & proper, of Alessandro Caltagirone and Gianluca Brancadoro. The two are the first among the non-elected members of the minority and are destined to fill the two positions left vacant on the board of directors after the resignation of Fabrizio Palermo and the forfeiture of Carlo Vivaldi.

MPS should convene a board of directors at the beginning of next week to proceed with their co-optation and thus bring the board back to fifteen members.

In parallel with the financial and corporate comparison, the issue of the integrity of the bank and its link with Siena remains open. The president of Unipol, Carlo Cimbri, reiterated in a recent interview with Sole 24 Ore that MPS will be the leader of the second Italian banking group and that the headquarters will remain in Siena.

In the project linked to Intesa's takeover bid, it is envisaged that, at the end of the operation, 635 branches in Siena will be sold to Unipol and subsequently transferred to Bper, with the aim of creating the second banking hub.

In the meantime, in Siena, a permanent institutional table has been established between local authorities and parliamentarians of Tuscany for the defense of the integrity of the mountain. The mayor of Siena, Nicoletta Fabio, reiterated that "we are not available to negotiate" on the integrity of the bank. While the president of the Tuscany Region, Eugenio Giani, explained that the meeting made it possible to "cement" the spirit of defense of the Mount that emerged from the Siena city council.