Italy's BPER, top investor deny interest in state-owned MPS

By Gianluca Semeraro and Elisa Anzolin

MILAN (Reuters) -Italy's BPER Banca and its main shareholder on Friday denied any interest in a merger with Banca Monte dei Paschi (MPS), joining peers that have distanced themselves from the state-owned bank, which is seeking a partner.

Rome owns 64% of Monte dei Paschi (MPS) following a 2017 bailout. Under European Union rules it must eventually cut its stake and sources have told Reuters the government has considered placing part of its stake on the market, given the difficulty in finding a buyer.

Comments by top executives at BPER and its main shareholder, insurer UnipolSAI, come after Banco BPM, another mid-sized bank like BPER and MPS, repeatedly denied any interest.

Heavyweight UniCredit, which walked away from an MPS deal in 2021, has also said it remains uninterested.

BPER has been seen as a less likely partner for MPS because of its size and the fact it is integrating Carige, a troubled peer it took over in 2022, two years after buying some 600 bank branches.

Its ties with insurer UnipolSAI also complicate matters because MPS partners instead with French insurer AXA.

However, given the lack of interest from Banco BPM and UniCredit, speculation mounted recently about the government possibly turning to BPER.

"There are no (talks with the government) and there never were", Carlo Cimbri, chairman of UnipolSAI which owns 20% of BPER, told reporters on the sideline of an event.

In December 2021, Cimbri denied any interest from BPER in Carige, a day before BPER tabled a takeover bid.

BPER CEO Piero Montani said on the sidelines of the same event: "MPS is in Siena, we are not at all interested in it."

MPS shares were down over 6% on Friday.

Cimbri also said there were no "developments" on a potential merger between BPER and small peer Popolare Sondrio, in which UnipolSAI has also taken a stake.

Last week, MPS CEO Luigi Lovaglio flagged his bank's willingness to partner with rivals of similar size to build a third big player in the sector next to heavyweights UniCredit and Intesa Sanpaolo.

($1 = 0.9292 euros)

(Reporting by Gianluca Semeraro and Elisa AnzolinWriting by Valentina ZaEditing by Mark Potter)