On 29 July, following months of closed-door manoeuvring and a management overhaul involving the exit of its CEO, Jean-Pierre Mustier, Unicredit issued its ‘preconditions’ for considering the acquisition of Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena. Founded in 1472 and repeatedly in distress in recent years, MPS was nationalised in 2017 after failing the European stress tests. Since then, the Italian state has been under pressure from the European Union’s competition arm to sell its majority stake by end-2021, but no acquirer was ever found. Unicredit’s conditions to even consider a deal are draconian: all dubious loans, ... (full story)