Italy to sell further Monte Paschi stake this year, minister says
Adds remarks from separate Treasury official in paragraphs 7-8, details and background throughout
ROME, Oct 3 (Reuters) -Italy plans to sell a further stake in bailed-out bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena BMPS.MI by the end of this year, Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti said on Thursday.
In a recorded interview for an event organised by Bloomberg, Giorgetti reiterated that he would like MPS to be part of banking consolidation in Italy.
"We expect by the end of the year to place another tranche with investors," he said.
"The idea however is still to create an industrial project in the medium term. Monte Paschi can and must play a role in shaping what the Italian banking sector becomes in the future."
After rescuing MPS in 2017 and taking an initial 68% stake, Italy has cut its shareholding in recent months to just below 27% through two successive market placements, pocketing around 1.6 billion euros ($1.76 billion).
Sources close to the privatisation process have previously said the Treasury needs to cede control of MPS and eventually put the lender back into private hands by the end of this year to meet re-privatisation terms agreed with the European Union.
Marcello Sala, in charge of managing policies regarding state-controlled firms at the economy ministry, said at the same event that MPS could contribute to the emergence of a third banking hub in the country after Intesa Sanpaolo ISP.MI and UniCredit CRDI.MI, the country's top banks.
His remarks raise the prospect of a potential deal with Banco BPM BAMI.MI or BPER Banca EMII.MI, Italy's third and fourth largest banks respectively, though both have said in the past they were not interested in MPS.
Insurer Unipol UNPI.MI, which is the leading shareholder in BPER, said last month it could consider becoming an investor in MPS but only as part of an insurance partnership.
Another potential candidate is UniCredit, which walked away from an MPS deal in 2021 and unveiled this month a potential 21% stake in Frankfurt-based Commerzbank, focusing on the German market.
($1 = 0.9065 euros)
Writing by Giuseppe Fonte; editing by Gavin Jones, Paul Simao and Jan Harvey
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