MPS: vote at the end of October is not a referendum between Siena and Intesa

The vote of the MPS extraordinary meeting at the end of October in favor of the two takeover bids on Banco Bpm and Banca Generali "is not a referendum between Siena's proposal and the Intesa Sanpaolo takeover bid, says the CEO of Rocca Salimbeni". A possible positive vote, in fact, "offers the possibility for our shareholders to have an alternative to the takeover bid and allows us to exert competitive pressure on prices and to pursue what we believe to be our objective of generating the greatest value for our shareholders".

In practice, the real decision for MPS shareholders will come later, in November or December, when they will have to decide whether to hand over their shares to Intesa's takeover bid or keep them to focus on the integration with Banco BPM and Banca Generali. Without an alternative, in fact, is Lovaglio's reasoning, Intesa would have a clear path and might not even make any relaunch.

These are the words of Lovaglio in London interviewed by Bloomberg TV. Regarding the position of the government, shareholder with 4.8% of the capital, Lovaglio recalls that the executive has stated that it will have a neutral position and adds: "In any case it means that maintaining the possibility of exerting competitive pressure on the price and increasing the value of the shareholding is something that is consistent with the statement: the important thing is that they do not want to interfere with the market". Therefore, for the above reasoning, according to Lovaglio the government could also participate in the assembly and vote in favor, precisely to keep the alternatives open and then let the market make the choices.