(Reuters) -Late Italian billionaire Leonardo Del Vecchio’s holding company has raised its stake in bailed-out lender Monte dei Paschi, a filing showed, strengthening its hand in expected consolidation among the country’s banks.
The move by Delfin, the holding company of the late eyewear magnate and Ray-Ban owner, follows the Italian Treasury’s placement of a 15% Monte dei Paschi (MPS) stake in November.
That sale handed Delfin a 3.5% stake. Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone, another Italian billionaire, also took 3.5%, while Banco BPM bought 5%.
The regulatory filing showed Delfin on Dec. 27, the day that MPS named five new directors, increased its holding to 9.78%.
The investment makes Delfin the biggest private investor in MPS after the Treasury, which holds 11.7% of the bank it rescued in 2017 – down from an initial 68%.
Italy’s government had said the re-privatisation of MPS, which has restructured under CEO Luigi Lovaglio in recent years, should contribute to building a third large bank next to Intesa Sanpaolo and UniCredit.
The 15% placement raised the prospect of an eventual tie-up between MPS and Banco BPM and prompted UniCredit to launch a takeover bid for BPM, with CEO Andrea Orcel saying his bank could not afford to be sidelined as consolidation sped up.
UniCredit’s bid for BPM threw a spanner in the works of BPM’s own bid for fund manager Anima Holding.
Like Delfin, Caltagirone is positioned to play a role in any future bank M&A. The construction tycoon has raised his initial MPS stake to 4.97% and bought 5% of Anima. He now has two representatives on the MPS board, including son Alessandro Caltagirone.
Delfin and Caltagirone are also the leading investors in Milanese bank Mediobanca with stakes of 19.8% and 7.8%, respectively. They are also investors in insurer Generali with stakes of 9.9% and 6.9%.
(Reporting by Elisa Anzolin and Alessia Pé; writing by Valentina Za; editing by Elaine Hardcastle and Deepa Babington)
