ROME: The Italian government will allow UniCredit’s takeover bid for Banco BPM to move forward, provided some conditions are fulfilled.
Following an in-depth review, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s cabinet decided “in defence of strategic interests and national security” to place some conditions on the €13 billion (US$14.8 billion) acquisition before allowing it to go ahead, the government said late on Friday in a statement. No details regarding the conditions were provided.
UniCredit, run by chief executive officer Andrea Orcel, launched the unsolicited takeover bid late last year, throwing Meloni’s plans for a third major banking conglomerate in the country centered on Banco BPM into disarray. Officials in Rome, however, have signaled they had little room to block the deal despite it facing stiff political opposition, Bloomberg has reported.