Rome (Reuters) – Andrea Orcel, managing director of the Italian Bank of Unicredit, said the Repubblica on a daily basis that it was likely that it will withdraw its offer from its Rivale Banco BPM.
The boss of Unicredit said that the bank would continue to try to overcome the obstacles raised by the Italian government as part of the “Golden Power” in Rome, as well as legal appeals, in order to conclude the operation, which received the green light from Brussels on Thursday, subject to certain conditions.
“But if we cannot solve (problems), as it is likely, we will withdraw,” he said.
The Italian Bank has agreed to sell 209 branches in the north of Italy in order to obtain authorization from the “antitrust” authorities in Brussels.
According to Andrea Orcel, Unicredit does his best to fulfill the conditions set by Rome so that the offer can move forward, including the abandonment of its activities in Russia, which has also been requested by the European Central Bank (ECB), but he says that it is not an easy task.
“We did more than what was requested by the ECB,” he said, adding that no other bank had reduced his activities in Russia as much than a said and that no acceptable buyer “for Russia or for the West” had arisen.
The offer of Unicredit on the German Bank Commerzbank also faces the opposition of Berlin and the target itself.
Andrea Orcel said that Unicredit would remain an investor and “would closely follow the path of transformation (by Commerzbank)”.
(Gavin Jones report, Diana Mandia)
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