(Finance) – The Antitrust Authority has given the green light to the merger operation BPER–Carige, through the acquisition by BPER Banca of exclusive control of the Ligurian savings bank. The Authority has resolved not to start the investigation, as long as BPER sells a company branch to Banco Desio consisting of 48 branches located in Sardinia, Liguria, Tuscany, Emilia Romagna and Lazio.
The sale of the branches is an essential part of the operation because capable of eliminating competitive criticalities to which the operation, as originally proposed, would have given rise on specific marketsin particular as regards bank deposits, loans to consumer households, loans to producer families-small businesses and medium and large businesses, managed savings (in turn divided into mutual investment fund management, management on an individual basis of movable assets (GPM) and in funds (GPF) and management of complementary pension products), as well as administered savings.
According to the AGCM, the sale of the branches is able to sterilize the effects of the acquisition of Carige’s control in these markets. In particular, the operation is neutral compared to the position already held by Bper in the provinces of Sardiniaas the sale to Banco Desio of 100% of the branches of Carige which was acquired, and also involves a downsizing through the sale of the Sardinian branches subject to the conditional authorization of the Bper / Unipol concentrationdating back to 2019, thus also resolving the pending issue of compliance with this provision.
In all other markets problematic post-merger quotasas a result of the overall transaction (net of the sale of the branch), they remain below the threshold of 35%, settling more often than not below 25%.