MILAN (Reuters) -CEO Alberto Nagel plans to present Mediobanca’s bid for the private bank Banca Generali to a group of Italian investors on June 4, a source with knowledge of the matter said on Tuesday, ahead of a shareholders’ meeting slated for mid-June to vote on the deal.
Mediobanca said last monthit planned to acquireBanca Generali, which is controlled by Italy’s top insurer Generali in a 6.3 billion euro ($7.1 billion) deal.
Mediobanca is itself seeking to fend off an unsolicited bid from smaller rival Banca Monte dei Paschi (MPS), part of a complex web of interconnected Italian finance M&A deals.
Mediobanca’s board rejected the Tuscan bank’s takeover bid, saying a tie-up would be detrimental to its shareholders because it lacked any strategic and financial rationale.
The group of Italian investors, who signed a consultation agreement in 2018 on the most important issues regarding Mediobanca and collectively hold an 11.9% stake, stated in February that they agreed with the board’s considerations.
Under Nagel’s leadership, Mediobanca has moved away from its historic role as a financial holding company and boosted its wealth management and consumer credit operations. It has been hunting a wealth management partner for years and had considered a bid for Banca Generali in the past, but no transaction ever materialised.
Nagel has said he hopes that shareholder backing for the Banca Generali move would signal investors intend to reject Monte dei Paschi’s proposal.
Mediobanca and MPS have two major shareholders in common — Italy’s Del Vecchio and Caltagirone families, which have clashed with Mediobanca over their role as investors in Generali.
Nagel has met Francesco Milleri, chairman of Delfin, the holding company of the del Vecchio family, and with Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone in recent days to discuss the bid for Banca Generali, the source said, adding he would meet institutional investors in London and New York this week and the next.
The group of Italian investors who are part of the consultation agreement includes Italian asset manager Banca Mediolanum, with a stake of 3.5% in Mediobanca.
($1 = 0.8902 euros)
(Reporting by Gianluca Semeraro, editing by Keith Weir)
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