ROME (Reuters) -Italy’s Banco BPM aims to launch its offer to buy the fund manager Anima Holding “from the second half of March”, CEO Giuseppe Castagna told Il Sole 24 ore daily in an interview published on Tuesday.
Banco secured shareholder approval on Friday for its decision to improve its offer Anima, a key plank of the Italian bank’s defence strategy against suitor UniCredit.
UniCredit in November launched a 10-billion-euro ($10.48 billion) all-share offer for the smaller rival. In Tuesday’s interview, Castagna reiterated that his bank sees the takeover bid as hostile.
“We have a great industrial project, while on the other (Unicredit’s) side there is a big question mark in terms of price, value, risks, strategies and prospects,” Banco BPM’s CEO said.
Castagna also said that if UniCredit’s offer were to fail, Banco BPM would be open to other deals. “I think we would be even more at the centre of potential aggregation operations, obviously with banks that have the right ‘fit’ for us.”
(Writing by Francesca Piscioneri, editing by Alvise Armellini)
