Delfin's pro-Intesa letter: "Commitment to give MPS shares"

MILAN – With Luigi Lovaglio still barricaded in the headquarters of Monte dei Paschi di Siena, looking for an alternative route to Intesa Sanpaolo's takeover bid, the letter with which Delfin committed to handing over its 17.6% share package was published. A commitment born last Sunday in Luxembourg, where the board of directors of the Del Vecchio family holding was held, in the aftermath of the 25 cent raise announced by the bank led by Carlo Messina. In the document, Delfin undertook to bring MPS's shares into compliance with the takeover bid, "provided that the offer is not declared lapsed or becomes ineffective for any reason" or that "significant circumstances or events do not occur which lead, even prospectively, to substantially prejudicial effects on the offer". Then there is the commitment to have "voting behavior that is consistent with the conditions of the offer" at the Monte assembly and not to "purchase new shares" of Siena. Delfin, as provided for by the Consolidated Law on Finance, will have the possibility of adhering to a possible offer competing with that of Intesa. But in the event of "failure to complete the competing offer for any reason, the Delfin shares will be considered automatically tendered to Intesa's takeover bid".

The extraordinary meeting of MPS currently continues to be on the agenda for 29 October as no contrary indications have yet been received. To move or postpone it you need valid reasons and an alternative plan to avoid falling into the same situation later. Voting indications from proxy advisors ISS and Glass Lewis will arrive in these days, which initially seemed oriented towards advising institutional investors to vote yes to open up options that could have induced Intesa to raise the price. But last weekend the relaunch was linked to the rejection at the meeting of the two takeover bids on Banco Bpm and Banca Generali and to the extraordinary dividend of 4 billion. Now we need to see if the proxies will take into account the new situation that prevents the approval of those points given that over 33% of the capital has already declared its opposition. However, institutional investors may want a further increase in price to deliver their shares to Intesa's takeover bid.