Italian lenders UniCredit SpA (BIT:UCG) and Intesa Sanpaolo SpA (BIT:ISP) said on Wednesday they had sold their entire stakes in the London Stock Exchange Group Plc (LON:LSE) to institutional investors at GBP9.60 (USD15.12/EUR11.93) a share.
The two banks announced earlier the launch of the placing, saying that the final price would be established through the bookbuilding process.
UniCredit has sold some 16.6m LSE shares, exiting its entire stake of around 6.1%, for a gross amount of about GBP159.5m in total, resulting in a EUR120m (USD152m) positive contribution to the group’s consolidated net income, it said.
Separately, Intesa announced it had disposed of some 14.5m LSE shares, representing an interest of around 5.4%, for gross proceeds of about GBP139.3m in total. The divestment will add around EUR105m to Intesa’s consolidated net income, the bank said.
Both placings were carried out at the same time, with Morgan Stanley & Co International plc managing the sale on behalf of both lenders.
Banca IMI SpA and the London branch of UniCredit Bank AG acted as passive joint-bookrunners in both cases, the banks said.
UniCredit was LSE’s third largest shareholder, while Intesa was its fourth biggest investor. Reuters cited earlier an unnamed source as saying that the move to exit LSE was part of the two banks’ strategy to switch focus back to core business and to release capital.
