锡耶纳牧山银行（Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA）的投资者否决了以250亿欧元（279亿美元）收购意大利人民银行（Banco BPM SpA）的计划，这对首席执行官路易吉·洛瓦利奥（Luigi Lovaglio）抵御意大利联合圣保罗银行（Intesa Sanpaolo SpA）收购要约的努力构成重大挫折。
Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA’s investors rejected a €25 billion ($27.9 billion) plan to acquire Banco BPM SpA, dealing a major setback to Chief Executive Officer Luigi Lovaglio’s effort to fend off a takeover bid from Intesa Sanpaolo SpA.
在周四的会议上，收购意大利人民银行的提案未能达到批准所需的三分之二多数。股东们预计随后不久将就另一项提案进行投票，即收购忠利保险公司（Assicurazioni Generali SpA）私人银行部门，这是同一战略的一部分。
The Banco BPM proposal fell short of the two-thirds majority required for approval at a meeting on Thursday. Shareholders are due to vote shortly afterward on a separate proposal to acquire the private-banking arm of Assicurazioni Generali SpA, part of the same strategy.
这一失败在会议前已在预料之中，标志着联合圣保罗银行收购锡耶纳牧山银行迈出了一步。这两项收购是洛瓦利奥为阻挠这家意大利最大银行的要约所做的最新、也是最雄心勃勃的尝试。联合圣保罗银行此前已提高其报价，该报价对锡耶纳牧山银行的估值与其约330亿欧元的市值相当。
The defeat, which was expected ahead of the meeting, marks a step towards Intesa’s takeover of Monte Paschi. The twin bids represented Lovaglio’s latest and most ambitious attempt to derail the offer from Italy’s biggest bank. Intesa previously sweetened its bid, which values Monte Paschi in line with its market capitalization of about €33 billion.
洛瓦利奥表示，此次投票不应被解读为对该行未来或对联合圣保罗银行要约的最终裁决。“博弈尚未结束，”洛瓦利奥在投票前的银行会议上对股东们说，并补充称，在联合圣保罗银行完成收购之前还有多个步骤，包括反垄断审查、要约文件的公布以及股东对要约的接受。
Lovaglio said the vote shouldn’t be interpreted as a final verdict on the bank’s future or on Intesa’s offer. “The game isn’t over,” Lovaglio told shareholders at the bank’s meeting ahead of the vote, adding that there are several steps before Intesa can achieve its takeover, including the antitrust review, the publication of offer documents and acceptance of the offer by shareholders.
洛瓦利奥在8月提出了对意大利人民银行和忠利银行（Banca Generali）的并行收购，旨在在意大利富裕的北部创建第三大银行集团，并使联合圣保罗银行的收购计划复杂化。尽管这位71岁的意大利金融界老将此前曾逆势取胜，但此次股东的决定让他几乎没有回旋余地。
Lovaglio in August outlined parallel bids for Banco BPM and Banca Generali in an effort to create a third large banking group in Italy’s wealthy north and complicate Intesa’s takeover plan. While the 71-year-old veteran of Italian finance has defied the odds before, the shareholder decision this time left him with little room to maneuver.
去年，他成功以敌意收购方式拿下了规模更大的竞争对手中期银行（Mediobanca），尽管锡耶纳牧山银行当时才刚刚走出长达数年的转型期。更出人意料的是，他在4月被罢免后不久便重返该行掌舵。
Last year, he managed to acquire larger rival Mediobanca in a hostile deal even though Monte Paschi had only recently emerged from a years-long turnaround. More unexpectedly, he returned to the helm of the lender in April, shortly after being ousted.
随着联合圣保罗银行的收购要约如今将在不受这两笔收购阻碍的情况下推进，在股东被要求决定是否出让其股份之前，洛瓦利奥似乎已几乎没有多少选择来维持锡耶纳牧山银行的独立性。
With Intesa’s offer now set to move forward without the obstacle posed by the two acquisitions, Lovaglio appears to have few options left to preserve Monte Paschi’s independence before shareholders are asked to decide whether to tender their shares.