MILAN: Credit Agricole Italia has amended its agreement with Algebris and will buy the 5.38% stake in Creval held by the investment fund even if its takeover bid for the Italian bank falls through, the French group said late on Tuesday.

Algebris has committed to tendering its stake in Creval under the buyout offer announced by Credit Agricole Italia in November.

The Italian arm of France's Credit Agricole has said it would offer 10.50 euros a share to buy third-tier lender Creval, for a total investment of 737 million euros ($876.96 million).

Shares in Creval, which have been trading steadily above the bid's price in a sign the market is betting on an improvement, closed at 12.17 euros each on Tuesday.

Credit Agricole Italia said it would purchase the Algebris stake five working days after the tender offer ended unsuccessfully, paying the bid's price or the market price if that were higher.