Bank presents development plan on December 17th
The Bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS), which was saved with billions from the Italian state, is planning a capital increase in the order of 2.5 billion euros. This was reported by the Milan business newspaper “Sole 24 Ore” (Friday edition). The capital increase should be announced at a board meeting scheduled for December 17th, when the bank will present its development plan.
At a press conference on Thursday evening, Italy's head of government Giuseppe Conte confirmed that “initiatives” in the sense of a possible merger between MPS and Bank Austria parent UniCredit were underway. However, the head of government did not want to reveal more.
The designated chairman of the board of directors UniCredits and ex-economics minister Pier Carlo Padoan denied on Thursday that differences of opinion about a possible merger of the bank with MPS CEO Jean-Pierre Mustier had led to his resignation. “The MPS case is not a source of disagreement,” Padoan told the Financial Times (FT, Thursday edition).
The 70-year-old Padoan, who has been a member of the UniCredit board since October, denied that he had been promoted to the supervisory board for political reasons, because the government in Rome was pushing UniCredit to take over Monte dei Paschi di Siena. “My appointment as UniCredit board chairman is not political and has nothing to do with MPS,” Padoan was quoted by the business newspaper.
