Bid fever

Bank M&A fever has gripped Italy. The winner of the battle for Banca Nazionale del Lavoro hasn’t yet been declared. But one group of investors is already celebrating. These super-rich property tycoons, including Stefano Ricucci and Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone, put BNL into play by clubbing together to buy a near-30% stake in the Italian bank. Now they have sold their stake to Unipol for E2.2bn, netting themselves an estimated capital gain of E900m. So the question in financial circles is: whe...