M&As in the Italian banking industry: the case of Intesa Sanpaolo's take over of UBI

Abstract

The goal of the work is to analyze the recent and ongoing operation of merger between two of the largest Italian credit institutions, namely Intesa Sanpaolo and UBI. This operation is crucial for many different reasons, the first relevant aspect must be considered at a National level, once the operation will be concluded Intesa Sanpaolo will become the first banking institution in Italy, leaving the actual close second institution (Unicredit) behind in terms of expected revenues and coverage. On an international level the group created from such an operation will be the seventh in Europe with an expected consolidated profit of 6 billions Euros in 2022, this should allow for the first time to an Italian bank to become competitive in the European Banking scenario. Moreover the operation is a perfect example of theoretical concepts connected to mergers such as expected synergies, stakeholders protection and retention, and the operative side of these complex operations. Intesa Sanpaolo expects to gain a gross gain of 730 millions Euros per year thanks to synergies in exchange of a una tantum expense on 1.27 billions Euros to carry on the operation and conclude the post merger integration process. An interesting aspect is how while conducting the negotiation for the merger with UBI the Intesa Sanpaolo group was already planning the managerial and commercial aspects related to the assets that would inherit as a result of the successful negotiations with UBI. Last but not least through some interview the work will focus on the perspective of stakeholders, both employees and customers, to analyses their opinion and the possible consequences that they will have to face as a result of the merger. In order to analyze such an hard operation at the beginning of the work a theoretical framework will be presented to better contextualize some of the practical implication of the case.