CSR discourses in a tender offer: the acquisition of Banca Agricola Mantovana by Monte dei Paschi di Siena

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) marked the consolidation of banks in Italy in 1990s and 2000s. Such operations are usually aimed at strengthening the local network and enlarging the banks’ activities (Banning, 1999; Froud et al., 2016). The effects of M&A extend beyond the mere financial ones, since such operations generate the movement of the “center of power” from the acquired to the acquirer (Ashkanasy & Holmes, 1995). Such circumstance takes on greater meaning whether the acquired bank is deeply-rooted in the local territory due not only to its activities, but also because it is governed by significant exponents of its community that guarantee its autonomy. The paper is aimed at investigating one of the most significant bank acquisition occurred in Italy during the end of 1990s: the acquisition of Banca Agricola Mantovana (BAM) by Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS). The paper is based on primary public sources (primarily, the takeover report of MPS), on archival documents gathered from the involved institutions, on articles appeared on the local and economic newspapers in the period before and after the takeover.