Adnkronos Milan, 7 Feb. – (Adnkronos) – "We plan to maintain the Banca Popolare di Sondrio brand in those territories where the bank has historically had a strong penetration". This was stated by Bper CEO Gianni Franco Papa during the press conference to present the voluntary public exchange offer promoted by the Group on all the shares of Banca Popolare di Sondrio. "This – he explains – is something we have already done, for example, with Carige in Liguria and with Monte di Lucca, in the province of Lucca, because we recognize great importance in the brand that is identified with the territories in which it operates".
Regarding the takeover bid launched by Bper on Pop Sondrio, "we made it clear to the CEO of Banca Popolare di Sondrio, Mario Alberto Pedranzini, we informed him of what had been decided by the Board of Directors. Today, if I'm not mistaken, a statement was released declaring that this operation had not been agreed upon; I had anticipated this too and I believe that it is an operation that they will evaluate. They will have to convene a Board of Directors in the next few days and they will make their assessments". "I would like to reiterate - he added - that we believe this operation is based exclusively on industrial parameters, not financial ones; an operation that consolidates the presence of a bank with a national character, but territorially very strong, in the most advanced regions and territories of Italy and therefore I believe that it is an operation that is in the interests of shareholders, customers, territories and communities". Therefore, he concludes, "we hope to find an agreement. We will certainly discuss with colleagues".
"This operation will allow us to reach 6 million customers, a significant number in the Italian banking landscape, with total customer assets of 380 billion euros, thus confirming our positioning, what is called total financial asset". "We will create a lot of value for customers - explains Papa - whether in retail, private or corporate, by optimizing the synergies that can be obtained from this operation, synergies that we have prudently indicated at 290 million euros".
With Pop Sondrio "we will have about 2 thousand branches; it is an algebraic sum of the two banks because there will be very little overlap." In this context, Papa added, "we do not even have the Antitrust issue because only in two cities do we exceed 25% of market share. We are talking about 8 branches out of 2000."