Italian insurer Unipol on Sunday moved closer to launching a counterbid for Banca Nazionale del Lavoro as its board approved a plan to buy BNL shares from investors who have opposed a bid from Spain's BBVA.
A source close to the situation told Reuters that Unipol's board, which met on Sunday, gave its top executives a green light to seek a deal with a group of BNL shareholders, who together own some 27 percent of the Rome-based bank.
Spanish bank BBVA has offered about 6.8 billion euros ($8.22 billion) of its own stock to buy the 85 percent of BNL it does not own. Its offer, seen as a test of Italian willingness to open the country's banking sector to foreign ownership, closes on July 22.
The Spanish bid has run into opposition from Italian investors in BNL, mostly property developers known as BNL's counterpact. Unipol has been expected to lead an Italian charge to prevent the Italian bank from falling into foreign hands.
"The board has given a mandate to the company's top executives to seek to buy the property developers' stake in BNL," the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Bologna-based Unipol was expected to make a statement following the board meeting and the insurer's top managers were due to meet the group of property developers later in the day.
Unipol, which owns just under 10 percent of BNL, would have to launch a take-over bid for BNL if all members of the counterpact agree to sell their shares because the purchase would take the insurer's stake in the bank above a 30-percent limit which triggers an obligatory take-over offer.
"This would be the obvious consequence," the source said.
The Bank of Italy, the country's ultimate banking arbiter, has given Unipol permission to increase its stake in BNL to just under 15 percent and the insurer has said it had options to raise the stake to 14.92 percent.
A BBVA official declined to comment on Unipol's plan.
BBVA and BNL said on Friday they would take legal steps to defend the Spanish bid if Unipol bought the counterpact's shares at a higher price than it was willing to offer the market.