London (Reuters) – The largest Dutch bank Ing Groep has met the Italian Banca Popolare Di Sondrio Banque in recent weeks within the framework of its development plan in Europe by external growth operations, said a person to the fact of the file, in a context of consolidation of the European and Italian banking sector in particular.
Preliminary discussions have not progressed and may not lead to an offer from the Dutch bank, said this source while Aing and Sondrio refused to comment.
The fourth Italian bank BPER has already filed an offer of 4.3 billion euros in shares to buy its Italian sister in February, the two groups having as main shareholder the second Unipol insurer which holds almost 20% of each lender.
The president of Unipol, Carlo Cimbri, acknowledged on Friday that a foreign bank was studying a potential offer for Sondrio after having already mentioned ING as a potential candidate during the presentation of the insurer’s strategic plan.
Pop Sondrio, advised by Bank of America and Morgan Stanley, spoke with several potential buyers as part of his defense against BPER’s offer, said the source.
ING, present in Italy since 2001, said in February looking for external growth opportunities in the main European countries, including Italy, Spain and Germany, to increase its size.
(Report of Amy-Jo Crowley in London, with the collaboration of Elisa Martinuzzi and Valentina Za; Bertrand de Meyer, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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