MILAN (Reuters) -Italy’s fourth-largest lender, BPER Banca, said on Thursday it has secured almost 36% of Banca Popolare di Sondrio (BPSO) under its buyout offer, a stake it considers sufficient to secure control of its smaller rival.
In February, BPER launched an all-share takeover bid for BPSO as deal-making picked up in the Italian financial sector. Last week, the bank sweetened its offer by adding a cash component of 1.00 euro ($1.17) per BPSO share, valuing BPSO at 5.44 billion euros.
Borsa Italiana data earlier in the day showed that take-up had reached 35.96% of Banca Popolare di Sondrio’s share capital.
The acceptance period for the offer ends on Friday, BPER said. The bid highlights the frenzied pace of bids and offers in Italy’s banking sector over the last year.
BPER has a market capitalization of about 10.8 billion euros, more than double Popolare di Sondrio’s 5.36 billion euros, according to LSEG data.
($1 = 0.8554 euros)
(Reporting by Gianluca Semeraro and Gursimran Kaur, editing by Gavin Jones and Richard Chang)
