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ROME (Reuters) – The Italian government is ready to use its special vetting powers if UniCredit’s takeover bid for smaller rival Banco BPM goes against the national interest, the prime minister said on Monday.
“This is a market operation … the government has instruments to intervene should it find that the deal, let’s say, is not in the national interest,” Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said in an interview to Quarta Repubblica TV show.
So-called “golden powers” legislation gives Italy’s government the right to block or set conditions on foreign and domestic forays, as well as governance changes involving companies that operate in strategic sectors such as energy, telecoms and banking.
Italy’s No.2 bank led by CEO Andrea Orcel launched a surprise 10 billion euro ($10.49 billion) offer for Banco BPM last month, saying this deal would take precedence over any potential move for Germany’s Commerzbank.
The bid risks scuppering the government’s plans to form a third strong banking player alongside Intesa Sanpaolo and UniCredit through a merger of Banco BPM with state-owned Tuscan lender Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS).
Orcel recently told investors that UniCredit still had no interest in MPS, having walked away from taking the bailed-out peer off the state’s hands in 2021, straining relations with government authorities.
Meloni said Italian savings should be invested in the country and not abroad.
“We have to be careful that savings are managed by decision-making centres that have their core business in Italy, otherwise if we don’t have this the savings don’t get invested in Italy,” Meloni said.
The government said it will carefully make its assessments when UniCredit formalises the terms of the bid.
($1 = 0.9532 euros)
(Reporting by Angelo Amante and Giuseppe Fonte; Editing by Chris Reese and Alistair Bell)