Shares in troubled Monti dei
Paschi di Siena (MPS) bank rose by up to 5% in trading Tuesday
morning amid reports that BNP Paribas is considering making an
takeover offer.
BNP, a French multinational financial services firm
headquartered in Paris, already operates in Italy through its
subsidiary Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL) and according to
reports, could realize about three billion euros in savings by
merging with MPS.
Meanwhile, Italian market regulator Consob announced
Tuesday that it would extend until January 27, 2015 its ban on
short-selling shares in both MPS and Banca Carige.
That ban was introduced at the end of October amid
volatility in the share value of the two banks, which were
identified as having serious capital shortfalls in extensive
stress testing by the European Central Bank.
Since that report, both banks have announced plans to deal
with the shortfalls that, in the case of MPS, amounts to about
2.1 billion euros.
However, the value of MPS shares have dropped dramatically
since the ECB report.
MPS has been troubled for some time, twice receiving
government bailouts.
It is still repaying the last government assistance
received in early 2013 and raised about five billion euros in
capital earlier this year to pay off its government debt and
avoid nationalization.
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