FSI is the buyer of 7.2% of Anima: Italian presence is strengthened, the stock soars on the stock exchange

The indiscretion of the day before is confirmed to be correct: FSI is the buyer of an important package of the capital of Anima holding, an operation organized and announced on Tuesday evening 14 February 2023 by Mediobanca.

Anima holding in Piazza Affari rises decisively in the context of a flat day: the stock has managed to gain more than six points. Before the opening of the markets there was the official entry into the savings society by FSI led by Maurizio Tamagnini, which was born as a spin-off of the Italian strategic fund of the Cdp which instead continued to operate as Cdp Equity. Anima reached a maximum for the day of 4.33 euros, a level not seen since the beginning of last June.

The analysts of Akros Bank, who raised anima’s valuation from “neutral” to “accumulated” with the price target unchanged at 4.3 euros per share “although Anima seems well priced at the moment”, underlined that the news has a positive impact on the stock, “reopening speculation on M&A deals, much earlier than expected”. Furthermore, they explain, “considering the uninspiring prospects of the company in the future, apart from shareholder remuneration, it is believed that this move could be a bet on the possible reshuffle of the Italian banking system with the creation of a larger banking group, which could eventually control Anima”.

Before the opening of the Stock Exchange, Mediobanca announced that it had concluded the purchase of 24.979 million ordinary shares of Anima Holding on behalf of FSI, through a procedure which is technically called reverse accelerated bookbuilding, for a consideration equal to 4.35 euro per share and a total outlay of approximately 108.7 million. The settlement of the operation will take place on February 17th.

As stated in a note, FSI does not intend to promote any takeover bid in the next 12 months.

The launch of the operation had been communicated on the evening of Tuesday 14 February, when it was said that the investor intended to purchase a minimum of 7% and up to a maximum of 9% of the company’s shares. As analysts point out Equity, FSI together with Poste will “have a stake of more than 19%, close to that of Banco Bpm, strengthening the positioning of Italian shareholders with strong institutional weight and theoretically reducing the probability of an increase in the shareholding/hostile projects by Amundi/Crédit Agricole”. The French are just over 5% and being also the first shareholder of Banco Bpm they had attracted a lot of attention when they moved to Anima.