(Alliance News) - These are days of intense contacts between the ECB and MPS's top management, with CEO Luigi Lovaglio personally involved in obtaining the green light for the takeover bid for Mediobanca, the first step in the broader national financial restructuring, Il Corriere della Sera reported on Tuesday.
The ECB's authorization, expected in the middle of next week, will be followed by the opinions of DG Comp and Consob: if positive, the offer could start in the first ten days of July and be completed within a month, the newspaper adds.
It cannot be ruled out that Frankfurt will request further information: the minimum expected acceptance is 51%, but the stated target is 66.7%. MPS is starting from a good basis of consensus: around 40% of Mediobanca shareholders could accept, thanks in part to the cross-shareholdings of investors such as Caltagirone and Delfin.
As Il Corriere writes, the market will be decisive: at the moment, there is a 7.5% discount between the implied value of the offer and Mediobanca's share price, halved since January.
MPS could bridge this gap by adding a cash component, backed by the bank's solid capital base. Meanwhile, the Milan Public Prosecutor's investigation into the sale of 15% of MPS by the MEF could intensify Consob and ECB scrutiny of the transaction.
By Claudia Cavaliere, Alliance News reporter
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