Mediobanca raises barricades and rejects MPS's takeover bid. The board of directors of Piazzetta Cuccia, meeting to examine Monte's proposal, takes three hours to reject the public exchange offer, which it defines as "hostile", "strongly destructive of value", "contrary to the interests" of Mediobanca and "devoid of industrial and financial rationale". Piazzetta Cuccia also points the finger at its shareholders Delfin (19.4%) and Caltagirone (5.5%), raising the issue of the "potential lack of homogeneity" of interests of the Del Vecchio family's holding company and the Roman entrepreneur's group, compared to the other shareholders of the bank, due to the "significant shareholding connections" that see them as protagonists in MPS and Generali, whose control represents the real stake in the attack on Mediobanca.
The stock market continues to follow the operation and Mediobanca, on the day of its response, lost 4.4% and Mps fell by 2.4%: the discount of the takeover bid compared to the values at which Nagel's bank is trading has fallen to 9.5%.
But what are the criticisms leveled at the offer? First of all, Mediobanca believes that it «has no industrial value, compromising the identity and business profile» of the bank, «focused on high value-added business segments and with clear growth trajectories». The board of directors - whose assessments were abstained by the directors Sandro Panizza and Sabrina Pucci representing Delfin and Caltagirone - foresees a «significant deterioration» of the investment banking and wealth management activities , hypothesizing a diaspora among the clientele, also in favor of «foreign banks», a hemorrhage that could be «accompanied by the loss of the best human resources» while the absence of «overlapping distribution networks» precludes «appreciable cost synergies».
