Luigi Lovaglio, CEO of Monte dei Paschi di Siena (Mps), has launched an action to defend the bank against the acquisition challenge launched by Intesa Sanpaolo.
To avoid the so-called “break-up,” last Thursday the Mps board of directors approved, by majority, Lovaglio’s proposals which launched a bold and complex offensive, but certainly possible to create value for shareholders.
Lovaglio’s proposals, who has shown throughout his long professional career and especially at Mps to never give up, did not surprise the government and political forces, just as they did not surprise market operators.
The government, with its residual shareholding, chose not to be neutral and, together with the most important part of the opposition in Parliament, looks favorably at the Siena initiative regarding the creation of a strong third Italian pole (Mps/Bpm/Banca Generali).
Lovaglio’s proposals, which were defined together with highly qualified advisors, respond to an industrial logic of strong product factories capable of enhancing credit and national savings.
The 13.22% stake of Assicurazioni Generali is the possible summary of these consolidation operations.
Lovaglio has personally taken the lead of Monte dei Paschi di Siena’s defensive strategy that would allow maintaining intact and strengthening the bank’s perimeter: shareholders and the market will be the arbiters who will decide the outcome of the great ongoing contest.
Lovaglio is certainly no stranger to demonstrating the courage of his strong ideas and has managed, as is well known, to overturn the order of things by returning to lead the Siena bank after having restored it and masterfully completed the historic acquisition of Mediobanca.
Now the CEO must be able to maximize the premium for shareholders with an initiative of fundamental importance also for the country, an initiative that is by no means easy or taken for granted.
The strong territorial roots of the possible new Group and the sure economic and operational synergies are the underlying reasons for the industrial plan that will certainly engage operators and the market.
If the proposed operations go through, Luigi Lovaglio will be the sure protagonist of the country’s future economic scenario.
All the necessary pieces of the strategy must obtain the approval of two-thirds of Mps shareholders.
The hope in Siena, both in the city and within the bank, is certainly equal to the trust that Lovaglio gathers, perhaps even beyond the objective probabilities of success of the operation in defense of autonomy and a territory that has the last concrete chance to remain a protagonist.
On October 29, the decisive response will be the extraordinary shareholders’ meeting of Banca Mps with no possibility of appeals.
In the background remain, beyond the balances of the credit sector and asset management, the real economy of the country with the banking system’s need to support more and better the enterprises, especially the small and medium ones that are the backbone of the entire national economy.
* former central manager of Mps with experience as deputy general manager of Banca Toscana and general manager of Mps Leasing and Factoring now independent consultant
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