MILAN (Reuters) -Prosecutors in Milan are looking into the Italian government's sale of a 15% stake in Monte dei Paschi di Siena last November to a small group of investors, two sources with knowledge of the matter said.
Italy's economy ministry sold the stake via an accelerated bookbuilding (ABB) procedure.
The sources did not provide details on what part of the process is being probed.
As part of the investigation police fetched documents relating to the transaction from the offices of Banca Akros, the broker that handled the ABB process, the sources said.
The Treasury was looking to build a stable core of domestic shareholders in Monte dei Paschi, which it rescued in 2017 and had been returning to private hands, sources told Reuters before the November stake sale.
Banco BPM took a 5% stake, fund manager Anima Holding took 3% and construction tycoon Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone and the holding company of late Ray-Ban owner Leonardo Del Vecchio each took 3.5% of the Tuscan bank.
Banca Akros is the investment banking unit of Banco BPM. Police went to Banca Akros offices to ask for the documents but the broker is not under investigation, the sources said.
Banca Akros said in a statement that in its role as global coordinator and bookrunner, it "conducted the process correctly and transparently", fully complying with applicable regulations and practices.
Delfin was not immediately available for a comment. A representative Caltagirone declined to comment.
In December, Banca Akros said it had acted "properly and transparently" in handling the sale after the Financial Times reported that UniCredit had been unable to buy a 10% stake in Monte dei Paschi during the placement as a call to Akros had not been returned.
Akros said the placement followed rules and practices governing such operations.
At the time Italy's Economy Ministry rejected the FT report as groundless, saying it had handled the sale "impeccably" and "transparently".
The sale was carried out at a premium to market prices, which was good for taxpayers, despite the fact that fewer investors than normal were involved in the process. Usually such placements involve more bidders but offer a discount.
Previous placements of Monte dei Paschi shares by the Treasury had brought onboard dozens of foreign funds as investors.
Since the November placement, Caltagirone and Delfin have increased their respective stakes becoming the top two shareholders in Monte dei Paschi.
The sale of the Monte dei Paschi stake kicked off a long expected wave of M&A activity in Italy's banking sector that has caused upheaval.
The country's second-biggest bank UniCredit has bid to buy smaller rival Banco BPM, meeting opposition from the government. Banco BPM has bought Anima.
Monte dei Paschi has bid for Mediobanca which in turn has bid for private bank Banca Generali.
($1 = 0.8671 euros)
(Reporting by Emilio Parodi, Gianluca Semeraro, Andrea Mandala and Valentina Za; Editing by Susan Fenton)
