The Milan Prosecutor's Office has launched an investigation into the placement of a 15% stake in Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) carried out by the Italian Treasury last November. The Special Currency Unit of the Guardia di Finanza has acquired documents related to the transaction from the offices of Banca Akros.

This was reported by two sources familiar with the matter.

The sale of the MPS share package was executed through an accelerated book building procedure managed by Banca Akros (part of the Banco BPM group) and involved four investors.

A 5% stake was purchased by Banco BPM, 3% by Anima Holding (now part of the Piazza Meda group following the takeover bid completed in April), while the Caltagirone group and Delfin, owned by the Del Vecchio family, each acquired a 3.5% stake.

In a statement, Banca Akros emphasized that, in its role as global coordinator and bookrunner for the procedure, "it conducted the operation correctly and transparently, in full compliance with the rules and practices governing such transactions, with the participation of hundreds of institutional investors via an electronic platform."

"All orders received were collected, recorded, and processed in the same way, all within the usual timeframes for this type of operation," the investment bank added.

The sale was completed at a price above market value--a rare occurrence for this kind of transaction, which typically involves a discount.

Previous placements of MPS shares by the Treasury had seen participation from various foreign funds. However, as sources indicated at the time, the Treasury's goal in the November operation was to establish a stable core of Italian shareholders as part of the re-privatization of the Siena-based bank following its public bailout in 2017.

Subsequently, both Caltagirone and Delfin increased their respective stakes, becoming the two largest shareholders in MPS.

This development comes amid a period of intense activity in the consolidation of the Italian banking sector. UniCredit is grappling with its challenging public exchange offer for Banco BPM, while MPS has launched a bid for Mediobanca, which in turn has set its sights on Banca Generali.

(Italian version by Andrea Mandalà, editing by Antonella Cinelli)