Barclays heads to Italy in its hunt for cut-price branches
BARCLAYS is in talks to buy 135 Italian branches from Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena (BMPS), as it looks to bolster its presence in Western Europe.
The bank is due to meet top BMPS bosses in Siena, accompanied by advisers from Morgan Stanley, in the next few days.
BMPSis being forced to offload the branches after being found to be in breach of Italian antitrust rules.
Talk has centred around a price of €4m (£3.7m) per branch, totalling €540m for the assets, but City PM understands Barclays chief executive John Varley is looking for a bargain price as BMPS is a forced seller.
BMPS wanted €5m a branch from Barclays, as it has recently sold other branches at that price.
Barclays has stressed that while it is looking to make bolt-on acquisitions in Europe it will only do so at the right price.
A deal is not imminent and the UK bank is also in talks to buy branches from other banks to build up its Italian presence, it is understood.
BMPS has to sell the branches by mid-December as a condition from Italy’s antitrust authority of its Antonveneta acquisition.
A Milan-based bank analyst said other banks might be interested in buying the BMPS assets, including Deutsche Bank.
Barclays has targeted northern Italy as a key growth area. It currently has 256 distribution outlets in Italy, including about 150 branches, up from 49 in mid-2007. BMPS and Barclays declined to comment.