Shares in Carige rose 11% today as the owner of the troubled Italian bank prepares to select a suitor for exclusive negotiations while a third potential buyer emerged.
A deal would allow Italy to solve a longstanding banking headache. The government has lined up some €400m in tax incentives to ease Carige's sale.
Italy's FITD depositor protection fund owns 80% of Carige following a 2019 industry-financed bailout.
It said after markets closed yesterday that its steering committee would conclude on Monday its review of non-binding offers for Carige.
Italy's BPER Banca, which before Christmas unveiled a rescue proposal for Carige, is vying with the Italian arm of France's Credit Agricole, a person familiar with the matter said. Credit Agricole declined to comment.
Dailies Il Messaggero and Il Sole 24 Ore today reported that US fund Cerberus was also in the running.
BPER offered a token €1 for Carige and asked the FITD to inject €1 billion into the loss-making peer.
That sum exceeded the €700m the FITD was allowed to spend based on the previous year's contributions by members.
The person said Credit Agricole Italia's capital injection request was significantly lower than BPER's, which however remains the favoured bidder.
BPER, which has been set onto an expansion path by its leading shareholder insurer UnipolSAI, said on December 21 it was ready to engage in discussions with FITD and is expected to amend its request.
The fund said this week that the non-binding offers for Carige were subject to a due diligence analysis to be conducted during an exclusive negotiation period. It has declined to name any interested parties.
Based in the northwestern Liguria region Carige has been laid low by an excessive exposure to the fragile local economy and decades of mismanagement.
In crisis mode since 2014, when it launched the first of a string of cash calls, Carige three years ago was placed under special administration by the European Central Bank.
The depositor fund in 2019 spent €600m to rescue Carige which now needs another €400m in capital.
It has been hunting for a buyer since Cassa Centrale Banca, which had taken an 8.3% stake as part of the 2019 rescue, last year walked away from a proposed acquisition.
News of Credit Agricole Italia's interest sent Carige shares up 4.6% yesterday.
A Carige deal would further boost Credit Agricole's presence in Italy, its biggest foreign market where it ranks as the sixth-largest lender following last year's €1 billion takeover of small northern bank Creval.
Back in 2017 Credit Agricole Italia clinched a rescue deal with FITD, taking over three small failing banks.
