Green light from the EU Antitrust for the Unicredit-Banco Bpm merger
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banking risk
For Brussels, the commitment of the bank in Piazza Gae Aulenti to sell 209 physical branches located in 181 Italian areas fully resolves the concerns about competition that the operation had raised. The AGCM's request was rejected: "No valid reason for the referral of the operation to Italy"
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The EU antitrust authority has approved the acquisition of Banco Bpm by Unicredit, which would result from the success of the public exchange offer (OPS) launched by the bank in Piazza Gae Aulenti and currently suspended. Brussels has therefore given the green light to the merger on the basis of the EU regulation on concentrations. But this approval is subject to full compliance with the commitments offered by Unicredit to address the Commission's concerns regarding the level of competition in the Italian banking sector. Precisely for this purpose, Unicredit has committed to divest 209 physical branches located in 181 problematic overlapping areas throughout Italy . And the commitments offered by the bank, for the EU Antitrust Authority, "fully address the competition concerns" identified, "eliminating the horizontal overlap between the companies' activities in these areas and ensuring the maintenance of competition".
The note, in fact, explains that at local level the merger would have led to competition concerns for deposits and loans for retail consumers and for services to SMEs. Given the strong horizontal overlap between the activities of the companies and branches in 181 local areas, Brussels feared that the companies themselves would have achieved "excessive market power potentially leading to higher prices and reduced competition in those areas" . At regional level, however, there are no concerns about services for large corporate customers as "several other established competitors would remain active on the market even after the transaction". Just as there are no concerns about possible coordination risks in the national market due to the fragmented and competitive nature of the market, the lack of transparency of consumer prices, and the lack of monitoring by competitors of their respective market behavior at both regional and provincial level".
At the same time as giving the green light, the Commission rejected the request of the AGCM, the national competition authority, to deal with the operation in Italy. For the EU executive, in fact, "there are no valid reasons that justify the referral of the operation to Italy". The EU Antitrust has "a particular interest" in ensuring the maintenance of competition in sectors such as banking and insurance, which are of "crucial" importance for the economic development of the Capital Markets Union and the Savings and Investment Union . Furthermore, the Commission "is in the ideal position to manage the operation, having developed significant expertise in the analysis of banking markets".
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