MILAN, March 18 - UniCredit is concentrating first on a potential combination with Commerzbank, leaving broader consolidation among Italian banks as a prospect for the future, Chief Executive Andrea Orcel said on Wednesday.
Speaking at a Morgan Stanley financial conference in London, Orcel framed decisions about consolidation in Italy as ultimately belonging to the shareholders who hold effective control of their respective institutions. He identified three banking groups that, in the prevailing view, might consider deals either among themselves or involving UniCredit.
Those three groups are interpreted as Italy's mid-sized lenders: Banco BPM, where France's Credit Agricole is the main shareholder; Monte dei Paschi di Siena, whose top two investors are the Del Vecchio and Caltagirone families; and BPER, where insurer Unipol is the principal investor. Orcel did not name these banks explicitly while speaking, but his comments pointed to that set of institutions.
On the prospects for negotiations, Orcel said: "I let you speculate what the view of the shareholders in ... every one of the three situation is. But at the moment, it is fair to say that we have not seen... any opening for negotiating anything." He emphasised the practical difficulties that controlling investors can create for deal-making, noting: "When you have, let’s say, de facto controlling shareholders in those groups, they all want something, and landing to a situation where everybody’s happy is a lot more difficult than what we’re talking about here today."
Orcel described one case as "more fluid" than the others and appeared to be referring to Monte dei Paschi, where shareholders are due to appoint a new chief executive shortly. He observed that, because of that near-term governance work, it was not the kind of moment when counterparts would be ready immediately to pursue a transaction: "It’s not exactly a moment where the next day they want to do something with someone else. There is a lag," he said.
While stressing the bank's strong connection to Italy, Orcel also set out UniCredit's broader geographic ambition. "We are very proud of our Italian roots," he said, "but to a certain extent, these are roots that we have much expanded, okay? Our model of bank, our vision of where we want to go is pan-European."
Orcel's remarks underline a two-track posture for UniCredit: an active pursuit of a cross-border opportunity with Commerzbank, and a more cautious stance toward domestic consolidation that recognises the influence of major shareholders at prospective partner banks. For the moment, that shareholder-driven dynamic means Italian consolidation discussions are unlikely to advance immediately.