Mediobanca CEO says conditions not right for cross-border bank M&A in Europe
Releads with Mediobanca CEO's comments
MILAN, Oct 3 (Reuters) -Conditions are not favourable for cross-border banking tie-ups in Europe, the head of Italy's Mediobanca MDBI.MI said on Thursday, adding that a potential acquisition of Commerzbank by UniCredit would not qualify as a cross-border deal.
Asked about where Europe's banking sector would experience more cross-border consolidation, Mediobanca MDBI.MI CEO Alberto Nagel told Bloomberg's annual conference in Milan on the future of finance: "I have doubts."
UniCredit's ownership of Bavarian bank HVB means its possible tie-up with Commerzbank is not truly cross-border, he said.
Speaking at the same conference, the CEO of Italy's biggest bank Intesa Sanpaolo ISP.MI Carlo Messina also said UniCredit's German presence put it in a good position to reap benefits from a possible Commerzbank deal.
"In Germany, UniCredit and Deutsche Bank are the only two banks that can create value from an integration with Commerzbank," Messina said.
UniCredit last month emerged as the single biggest investor in Commerzbank with a 20.5% stake conditional on supervisory approval, in a move that irked the German government and stoked speculation over possible further cross-border consolidation.
Nagel, however, said that the "good examples of what we could see in the future" were rather Spanish bank BBVA's BBVA.MC offer for smaller rival Sabadell SABE.MC and BNP Paribas' BNPP.PA acquisition of AXA's AXAF.PA asset manager.
Financial regulation in Europe made deals such as the BNP-AXA tie-up advantageous, while discouraging cross-border banking mergers given the ringfencing of liquidity and capital at the single-country level, Nagel said.
The AXA-BNP deal has "capital relief embedded" linked to rules allowing a banking group to tie up less capital if it buys an asset management business through its insurance unit.
Italy's biggest investment bank, Mediobanca has played a key advisory role in many transactions, including Intesa's 4 billion euro acquisition of rival UBI in 2020.
"When rules are favourable, consolidation may happen," Nagel said.
Intesa's Messina said his bank would only consider acquisitions in asset management and private banking, but added that targets in the two sectors are "too expensive" and deals are hard to execute.
As a consequence, Messina ruled out Intesa engaging in M&A activity over the next two years.
"We will not enter into any kind of acquisition in these two years because I want to remain concentrated on increasing commissions and improving technology within the organisation," he said.
Messina said the only way to boost profits through a merger was by reducing staff costs, which UniCredit had a chance to do in Germany because it already owns HVB.
Reporting by Valentina Za, Giulio Piovaccari and Elisa Anzolin, editing by Gavin Jones and Franklin Paul
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