Intesa Sanpaolo CEO calls on governments not to get involved in banking deals
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The chief executive of Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy’s largest bank, called on governments to stop intervening in banking transactions and leave approval to regulators and shareholders.
“It’s a shareholder.” . Those who invest in the company. . . Who decides their future,” Carlo Messina told the Financial Times. “Governments cannot choose based on their own preferences… They should only intervene where financial stability is threatened.
The comments come as UniCredit’s main rival UniCredit is locked in a dual battle with Rome and Berlin over the possibility of acquiring Milan-based lenders BPM and Commerzbank.
This week, UniCredit raised its exposure to Commerzbank to 28%, just below the 30% threshold that would force it to make a formal takeover bid. In response, Germany’s outgoing government invited the Italian bank to sell its stake.
“It is clear that today we are in a phase of building political consensus in certain areas to defend the country’s borders, but UniCredit already owns a large German bank [HVB],” Messina said.
Last month, UniCredit also launched a €10 billion takeover bid for cross-town rival BPM, scuttling the Italian government’s plan to merge BPM with Monte dei Paschi di Siena. Plan, which is undergoing privatization in Rome. BPM rejected the takeover bid as too low and said the takeover would weaken competition in the Italian banking market.
“I believe that no matter what, there will be a third big player in Italy because the market will be looking for that,” Messina said.
“We view more consolidation and more competition in Italy’s banking sector positively as this is key to ensuring strong investment in cybersecurity and technology, which will help strengthen the Italian economy.”
Under Messina’s leadership, UnionBank’s market capitalization more than doubled to 69 billion euros, and the bank’s issuance reached a record 31 billion euros.
In 2020, he also launched a €4.2 billion hostile takeover of rival UBI Banca, which shareholders approved after five months of intense negotiations.
“Our acquisition of UBI Banca was carried out within the framework of [I mentioned]respecting the positions of each competent authority and being fully recognized by the market.
Messina’s latest three-year term expires in April, at which time he will seek a contract extension.
However, recent outages, including a banking app crash this month and a rogue employee illegally accessing a politician’s private bank account, have put the lender’s IT systems in the spotlight.
Messina said the bank has since invested more than 30 million euros in establishing new internal control systems and isolating the accounts of politicians.
