MILAN -(Dow Jones)- Mediobanca SpA (MB.MI) is better placed than other niche European investment banks to grab a bigger share of the diminishing M&A advisory market in Italy and Europe, taking up space left by major banks that have been weakened or forced out by the financial crisis, analysts and observers say.
Mediobanca has itself suffered fallout from current market difficulties and is expected to fall into the red in 2009, but observers say veteran Chairman Cesare Geronzi's impressive address book and Chief Executive Alberto Nagel's tight rein on expenses have turned the advisory side of the business into a powerhouse.
In the first half of fiscal 2009, Mediobanca's wholesale banking net interest income rose 18% to EUR141.2 million compared with EUR119.2 million a year earlier. In the same period, Mediobanca earned over EUR123 million from fees and commission income.

Geronzi has helped the bank to become a key player in Italian finance, where it leads Banca Leonardo and the Italian branch of investment bank Rothschild in advisory business.
Although the financial crisis has drastically reduced the volume of M&A activity worldwide, Mediobanca has generated advisory fees from deals in Italy, Spain, the U.K. and Germany, taking advantage of problems at formerly dominant banks such as Morgan Stanley (MS) and Credit Suisse (CS), that were badly weakened by the financial crisis.