The MPS Council on 20 August approved 2 stock exchange offers on Banco BPM and Banca Generali, worth a full of about EUR 34 billion. This is an answer to Intessa's offer for about EUR 30.5 billion. The dispute strikes the Italian left due to the fact that Siena's defence collided with an attack on the government of Giorgia Meloni.
Bank controversy with Siena
Monte dei Paschi di Siena does not want to wait passively for Intesa Sanpaolo to take over. The bank council on 20 August approved the plan of president Luigi Lovaglio: 2 public stock exchange offers on Banco BPM and Banca Generali. According to ANSA, the operation is worth about EUR 34 billion, of which EUR 25.3 billion is allocated to Banco BPM and EUR 8.72 billion is allocated to Banca Generali.
It is simply a defence movement against Intessa Sanpaolo's offer, valued by the media at about EUR 30.5-30.6 billion. Intesa wants to take over the historical bank from Siena. The MPS corresponds to an effort to build a larger group that would keep its subjectivity and not be stripped as part of the financial puzzle.
To the right, it's a bigger subject than the stock rate. Banks are the blood of the economy. Those who control credit, savings and a network of branches are affected by entrepreneurs, families and local communities. In Italy, Giorgia Meloni understands that national economical interest does not end with a valuation table.
MPS as State Test
Euronews reported that the MPS council decision was taken after an extraordinary meeting, and the Lovaglio plan received 9 votes in favour with 4 abstentions. The transaction structure itself is simple in the description, but hard in execution: MPS pays with shares, wants to take over 2 entities and at the same time defend itself against a larger player.
The company besides announces the distribution of EUR 4 billion to MPS shareholders, partially in cash, partially in Generali's shares. According to ANSA Lovaglio, he talks about the creation of a group with a pro-capitalization form of about 80 billion euros, 1 of the 10 largest in Europe and the another in Italy in terms of loans to customers and a network of branches.
This isn't just a management dispute. The question is whether the state has the right to guarantee that strategical institutions do not vanish in the name of 1 logic: the largest takes everything. Conservative economical policy does not mean manual control of each bank. It means knowing that a marketplace without national interest rapidly becomes the area of stronger games.
Left erstwhile wants protection, neutral once
The Democratic Party's reaction is the most interesting. According to Italian Libero Quotidiano Antonio Misiani, liable for economical affairs in the PD, he first welcomed the Prime Minister's words about the request to avoid dismemberment of MPS. It was about a bank that is more than a logo on the building for Siena. After the Lovaglio movement, the left-wing speech was to change: accusations arose that politics should not enter the banking gameplay, and Meloni wants to play a banker role.
Such volts uncover a known mechanism. erstwhile the right defends local identity, jobs and national capital, the left immediately seeks a charge of “interference”. However, erstwhile it is essential to appear before voters in Tuscany, the same left remembers that MPS is part of the past of the region. It's a convenient flexibility, but a weak policy.
In our pages we have described how Giorgia Meloni explained her right-wing roots. This dispute shows the applicable dimension of specified thinking. The right does not gotta apologize for wanting to defend national institutions from demolition under marketplace dictates and large groups.
Economic sovereignty is not a slogan
Italian debate is besides a lesson for Poland. We talk besides frequently about banks, energy and manufacture in the language of transaction accountants, not the language of the state. Meanwhile, property matters. Headquarters, decision-making headquarters, branch network, credit impact for tiny companies: these are real tools of economical power.
Meloni doesn't should be right about all item of this operation. MPS may encounter opposition of shareholders, regulators and the entities themselves. But the direction is understandable: not allowing a historical bank to become just an asset to divide.
The Italian left got an uncomfortable question. Is he truly defending Siena, workers and the local economy, or is he just looking for a convenient angle to attack the government? In economical policy, the answer is seen in action. And here, actions talk more than organization conferences.
Source: Libero Quotidiano, ANSA, Euronews, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena.
Source: liberoquotidiano
