Lodi fights back

15 June 2005

The Italian bank clearly has no intention of folding to ABN, in spite of the Dutch group s sweetened offer. ABN’s best hope now lies with regulators and the courts, which have the power to derail Lodi s bid.

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Banca Popolare di Lodi has increased its paper and cash bid for Antonveneta to E27.50 a share, from its previous E26 a share. In addition, it said investors keeping the shares for 18 months would receive an extra E1 a share in cash. On Monday, rival suitor ABN Amro had upped its allcash bid to E26.50 a share from E25.

Consob, the stockmarket watchdog, on Tuesday sent Lodi a letter, according to a person familiar with the situation. The letter pointed out that the E26 a share paper and cash offer that Lodi was gearing up to launch was now lower than ABN's E27.50 bid, and that Lodi would not be allowed to proceed unless it improved its bid, according to that person.

For each Antonveneta share, Lodi is proposing to give 0.50 of its own shares valued at E4.60, 0.40 shares in Reti Bancarie, a listed subsidiary, valued at E18, and E4.90 in cash. It says that it will pay the difference between its valuation and the market values of the shares in cash.

Milan prosecutors are investigating whether market prices have been manipulated in the contested takeover of Antonveneta. When it was first reported that Gianpiero Fiorani, Lodi's chief executive, was named in the investigation, Lodi said that he had done nothing wrong.

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