Rome (Reuters)-The Italian government gave its green light on Friday under the takeover of Banco BPM by Unicredit, we learned from two government sources.
Unicredit could not be reached immediately for a comment.
The Italian government has examined this operation at 14 billion euros under its “Golden Power”, which allows it to block or set conditions for any acquisition, Italian or foreign, a business of a sector deemed strategic such as energy, telecommunications or, in this case, banks.
Unicredit plans to launch its Banco BPM Banco acquisition offer, entirely in titles. However, it reserves the right to wait until June 30 according to the conditions set by the government, likely to enable it to renounce its project.
The sources did not specify what were the conditions set by the government.
Another official told Reuters this week that the government would likely ask Unicredit to stop any activity in Russia as quickly as possible.
Unicredit is one of the rare international banks that did not leave Russia from the large -scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, its managing director Andrea Orcel having justified the maintenance of this presence by his desire not to harm the shareholders by renouncing assets without obtaining a fair price.
The Italian bank nevertheless accelerated the reduction of its exposure to the Russian market in response to the requirements of the European Central Bank a year ago.
(Giuseppe Fonte and Valentina ZA report, Bertrand Boucey)
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