“Acquiring Banca 121 was an industrial choice. A great opportunity was lost with Bnl”
Siena, 9 November 2021 – «I am not a politician but a technician, who had this experience at a time when openness to civil society was greater than today. There is very little discussion on strategic and industrial projects, it seems to me, from what I read in the newspapers, that the discussion on the appointment of Bank Mps It has a strong political flavor “.
March 30, 2006 Pier Luigi Fabrizi thus ended his almost eight years as president of Banca MPS, answering a journalist’s question. At the end of April there was the shareholders’ meeting which endorsed the appointment of Giuseppe Mussari, passed from the Foundation to the Bank. And the reference to the prevalence of politics was particularly bitter for a president who had tried to cancel the label of ‘red bank’ affixed to Monte, of institution dominated by local politics.
THE ACQUISITION
The first shot by Pier Luigi Fabrizi for the purchase of Banca Agricola Mantovana. “The takeover bid on the BAM represents the best memory of my time at Monte – says the former president today -. It was the first operation of its kind against a cooperative bank, that is, a subject that was extremely difficult to acquire for the presence at the time of the capita voting mechanism. The determination, commitment and unity of purpose with which the Bank threw its heart over the obstacle of that operation preserved intact in the memory. of a large bank but governed by local logic) has always been like this whatever the entity to be acquired. Trento and Rovereto but, above all, to recreate a presence in the north largely lost following the sale of Credito Commerciale and Credito Lombardo “.
THE RISE AUCTION
A few months later Mantua, Monte makes its way to Salento and acquires, for 2,500 billion lire, Banca 121, taken from Sanpaolo Imi after an auction. “The purchase of the Banca del Salento was an exclusively industrial operation – is Fabrizi’s mantra -. After the acquisition of BAM in the north east, it was a matter of continuing with the strategy of the aggregating pole federative then pursued, further lines of territorial expansion in the north west and south east of the country. The attention of the Bank was directed at the same time to the European Regional Bank and, precisely, to the Banca del Salento. With the first our offers were unsuccessful. We decidedly moved towards the latter, also because at the time it represented a pioneering subject in the development of the integrated diversification strategy of distribution channels (traditional branches, financial advisors, online systems)., Due diligence, etc.) and characterized from numerous passages in the Board of Directors. The price that was determined, paid in cash for only 600 thousand lire (equal to 24%) and in shares for r the remaining 1,900 billion lire, was the result of the market mechanism of the auction coordinated by a subject of high standing and the presence of a very strong competitor. This latter aspect demonstrates the great industrial interest that the Banca del Salento aroused “
THE LOST OPPORTUNITY
Negotiation prince of those years was with the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro. The merger on paper had a great industrial sense, but then when it came to discussing exchanges, ownership structures and governance, things got complicated. “The possible operation with Banca Nazionale del Lavoro – is Fabrizi’s version – went through various phases from 1998 to 2005. Something was always missing at every moment. In 2005, the operation vanished definitively, in a press release. , to a popular proverb: when there was flour there was no sack and vice versa. I was referring to the opposition of the various local and national decision makers. the deal was a great opportunity lost due to the short-sightedness of some: the Bank would have definitively resolved the dimensional problem and the Foundation could have become a major shareholder of a large national banking entity “.
THE LEVER OF SPORT
It was years where Siena was also the capital in sport, with Siena in Serie A and Mens Sana Basket starting to win championships and cups, thanks to Monte. “Sports sponsorships, in particular those of Mens Sana Basket and AC Siena but also those of other minor clubs – points out Pier Luigi Fabrizi – represented at the time a strategic marketing choice that followed that of resorting to a large testimonial, maestro Luciano Pavarotti. Through them the aim was to strengthen, in an original way and through sport, the driving vehicle and subject of repeated media coverage, the dissemination of the name and image of the Bank and of the Group on the national territory and in particularly among young people.
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