Italy’s depositor protection fund, the FITD, has reportedly selected mid-sized bank BPER Banca to discuss the divesture of ailing lender Carige.
The Italian government is offering €380m in gross tax incentives to support Carige’s divestiture after it failed to sell state-owned Monte Dei Paschi to UniCredit in 2021.
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The FITD, which acquired an 80% stake in Carige after €600m rescue in 2019, has given four weeks to BPER Banca to study Carige’s financial data and agree for a takeover, Reuters has reported.
The offer expires on 15 February 2022.
Initially, FITD rejected BPER Banca’s offer after it made a demand of €1bn ($1.1bn) capital injection. This led BPER Banca to make a new bid.
As per the report, BPER Banca has now cut its capital injection demand to €530m.
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By GlobalDataBPER Banca expects the deal to have no impact on its capital position due to the government’s tax incentive.
French lender Credit Agricole and US fund Cerberus were also among the potential suitors for the bank.
However, Italy has favoured BPER and some FITD members have raised concerns regarding Credit Agricole’s expansion in Italy.
Credit Agricole controls over 5% of the country’s market after the $1bn takeover of Italian lender Creval.
BPER plans to buy the remaining stake in Carige at €0.80 per share, which will boost its assets to about €155bn, making it a leading lender in the country.
