By Andrea Mandala
MILAN (Reuters) -Banca Akros, the investment bank of Banco BPM, said on Monday it had acted “properly and transparently” in handling last month’s placement of a 15% stake in Monte dei Paschi on behalf of the Rome government.
The Financial Times reported on Monday that UniCredit had been unable to buy a 10% Monte dei Paschi stake during that placement.
“We dispute the quote that ‘UniCredit had tried to buy a 10 per cent stake in MPS, the people said, but the bank’s call to Akros was not returned,'” Akros said in response to a Reuters request.
“This statement unfairly suggests improper conduct by Banca Akros … in managing the placement of the MPS share tranche,” it said, noting the placement followed rules and practices governing such operations.
Italy’s Economy Ministry also rejected the FT report as groundless, saying it had handled the sale “impeccably” and “transparently”.
UniCredit did not respond to a request for comment.
UniCredit has launched a buyout offer for Akros’ parent company Banco BPM.
This has derailed government plans to foster an eventual merger between BPM and MPS that would create a stronger competitor to UniCredit and market leader Intesa Sanpaolo.
UniCredit’s move also hampers BPM’s purchase of fund manager Anima Holding, a partner of both BPM and MPS.
UniCredit CEO Andrea Orcel has said his bank could not afford to be sidelined by accelerating Italian banking consolidation.
The Treasury managed to place the BPM stake at a premium to the market, while normally similar transactions require a discount.
In September UniCredit used a similar placement in Germany to build a stake in Commerzbank, angering the Berlin government.
After placing MPS shares with international investment funds over the past year to lower the stake it acquired in a 2017 bailout, Italy wanted to encourage the emergence of a core of more stable shareholders with a new placement, sources had previously told Reuters.
To meet re-privatisation commitments agreed with the European Union, the Treasury had to cut the stake below 20% by the end of the year.
They sold 15% in November to cut the stake just below 12%.
Akros said it had taken into account all orders that had been properly placed.
“All orders were collected, recorded, and processed in the same manner and no correctly submitted transaction proposal was ignored,” it said.
(Writing by Valentina Za; Editing by Alvise Armellini and Richard Chang)
