UniCredit starts Monte dei Paschi talks

摘要

Italy's UNICREDIT posted higher-than-expected second-quarter net profit on Friday, a day after agreeing to embark on formal talks with the government to buy rival MONTE DEI PASCHI DI SIENA, Reuters reported. Italy's second-biggest bank late on Thursday said it had signed an accord with the country's Treasury setting guidelines for a potential acquisition of the Tuscan bank which Rome rescued in 2017, spending €5.4bn (US$6.4bn). UniCredit, which had long rebuffed government pressure to take on Monte dei Paschi, said it would only acquire "selected parts" of the lender in a deal that would leave its capital buffers unchanged while boosting earnings per share by a double-digit percentage.