UniCredit on Sunday sealed its €22bn acquisition of Capitalia, an all-Italian deal which was concluded at great speed and will give birth to Europe’s second largest bank, Financial Times reports.
The combined bank will have a market capitalisation of a little over €100bn, second in Europe only to HSBC, and adds to the astonishing changes in Italian banking since the resignation in 2005 of Antonio Fazio, the previous governor of the Bank of Italy.
The autocratic Fazio had a veto on mergers but since his departure there have been six sizeable mergers and acquisitions including Sunday night’s announcement that two mutual banks, Banca Popolare dell’Emilia Romagna and Banca Popolare di Milano, were also combining in a deal valued at €5.65bn ($7.6bn).
The enlarged UniCredit will be second in market share in Italy to the newly-merged Intesa Sanpaolo. UniCredit is paying an equivalent of €8.41 for each Capitalia share, 5.5 per cent above the share price on Friday.