Credit Agricole wins majority support for takeover of Italy’s Creval

The Italian arm of France’s Credit Agricole (PA:CAGR) has won majority support for a takeover of Italy’s Creval after agreeing to pay the maximum price it had proposed and winning over holdout investors.

It said late on Tuesday it would pay 12.50 euros per share in the Italian regional lender regardless of whether acceptance topped 90% of Creval’s capital – dropping a condition which had made unclear how much shareholders stood to receive.

After sweetening its bid, Credit Agricole was offering 12.20 euros per Creval share, unless it surpassed the 90% mark.

Credit Agricole said shareholders holding 27.2% of Creval had agreed to tender their shares or confirmed they would do so now that the condition had been dropped.

That is on top of a 22.6% take-up which Credit Agricole had reached as of Tuesday.

Another 2.45% Creval stake which Credit Agricole had bought in block trades on the market means the Italian arm of France’s No.2 bank has secured majority control of Creval.

The offer, which was due to end on Wednesday, has now been extended through Friday.