BARCELONA, Sept 17 (Askume) – Insurer Unipol (UNPI.MI) may consider becoming a Monte dei Paschi.(BMPS.MI) Investors sold their stakes in the bank as far away as Italy, but only as part of an insurance partnership.
Simbri said he would only consider shares that do not require regulatory approval, which would mean a maximum of 9.9%. Exceeding the 10% threshold requires regulatory permission.
“I’m not interested in shares. I’m only interested in commercial partnerships,” Cimbri told reporters on the sidelines of the Louis Vuitton Cup in Barcelona. He added that even then the terms of the partnership were important.
It currently holds 26.7% of MPS shares, after Italy rescued MPS in 2017 and reduced its stake through a rights issue.
Simbri took the helm of Unipol in 2010 and expanded the distribution network of Italy’s second-largest insurer by becoming a major shareholder in mid-sized banks BPER Banca (EMII.MI) and Popolare di Sondrio (BPSI.MI) .
Banks can partner with insurance companies to sell their products through their branches and earn distribution charges.
Simbari said BPER has matured enough to be able to engage in further M&A transactions.
BPER and rival Banco BPM (BAMI.MI) have long been considered as merger partners for MPS, with the government saying Italy would benefit from a third-largest banking group.
Another potential candidate, UniCredit, abandoned the MPS deal in 2021 and recently bought a 9% stake in Commerzbank (CBKG.DE) to focus on the German market .
expensive
Simbri said BPER’s expansion strategy has attracted struggling peers in need of a turnaround, while MPS has been restructuring.
“It’s expensive and we can’t increase the price like other places… If you buy something when the price is already high, I would never do it as a purely financial investment, to be honest.”
Simbri said his main interest is in MPS’s non-life insurance business, where Unipol is the market leader.
MPS is currently a partner with French insurance company AXA (AXAF.PA) .
Their joint venture is set to expire in 2027, and if MPS ends the partnership early it will have to compensate AXA upfront for lost revenue.
“As far as I know, MPS has a joint venture with AXA, so it cannot choose another partner. Without this partner, we are not interested in the shares,” Simbri said.
MPS CEO Luigi Lovaglio did not rule out the possibility of MPS using some of its accumulated excess capital to buy back AXA’s stake in the joint venture ahead of schedule.
