{"id":264527,"date":"2025-07-14T15:15:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T15:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/264527\/"},"modified":"2025-07-14T15:15:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T15:15:15","slug":"eu-warns-italy-over-meddling-in-unicredits-banco-bpm-takeover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/264527\/","title":{"rendered":"EU warns Italy over meddling in UniCredit\u2019s Banco BPM takeover"},"content":{"rendered":"

Italy has been hit by a preliminary European Union warning over its use of so-called Golden Powers to restrict\u00a0UniCredit SpA\u2019<\/a>s planned takeover of\u00a0Banco BPM SpA<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a legal move that sets up a power struggle between Brussels and Rome, EU officials accused Giorgia Meloni\u2019s government of potentially violating EU law in imposing national conditions on the deal. Bloomberg earlier\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0the step.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Brussels-based executive said that Italy\u2019s application of its golden powers on UniCredit\u2019s deal \u201cmay contravene\u201d the bloc\u2019s merger rules, highlighting how Rome\u2019s move \u201clacks sufficient reasoning.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The EU\u2019s said the government\u2019s move appears \u201cincompatible with other provisions of EU law, including on the free movement of capital and on prudential oversight by the European Central Bank,\u201d a statement from the EU executive said. \u00a0<\/p>\n

In the preliminary findings, the European Commission added that it should have reviewed the Italian government\u2019s application of its golden powers before it was implemented on the deal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Monday\u2019s escalation might pave the way for a legal wrangle that could ultimately land at the EU Court of Justice, should Italy eventually refuse to appease the concerns. Rome now has now been requested to respond to the commission\u2019s findings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The EU stance adds to criticism by an Italian tribunal, which struck down some regulatory requirements imposed by the state in a decision published on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The Administrative Court of Lazio toppled the Italian government\u2019s request to lower the loan-to-deposit ratio at Banco BPM and UniCredit in Italy for five years, and to not reduce the current level of Banco BPM and UniCredit\u2019s project finance portfolio in Italy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still, the court backed the government\u2019s order to UniCredit to exit Russia and to keep unchanged domestic investments at Banco BPM\u2019s newly acquired asset manager Anima Holding SpA.<\/p>\n

UniCredit welcomed the local court decision as \u201cunequivocal proof that the way in which Golden Power was used was illegitimate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A government official said the decision largely confirms the legitimacy and structure of the prescriptions.<\/p>\n

UniCredit unveiled its unsolicited all-share offer for Banco BPM in November, when it became clear that the Italian government was looking to build a large banking group around the formerly bailed-out Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA. Banco BPM was seen as a potential candidate to merge with Monte Paschi.<\/p>\n

Orcel escalated the standoff with the Italian government in May, when it filed a claim with the administrative court over the wide-ranging conditions imposed on the potential deal.<\/p>\n

Despite the outcome of the Italian ruling, it\u2019s unclear if UniCredit will still pursue a deal for Banco BPM given several of the requirements were confirmed and the expiry of the offer period on July 23.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Italy has been hit by a preliminary European Union warning over its use of so-called Golden Powers to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264528,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[101067,3670,2000,299,5187,1699,101068,2199,27002,332,101069],"class_list":{"0":"post-264527","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-banco-bpm-group","9":"tag-bank","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-fortune-500-europe","15":"tag-italy","16":"tag-londonwires","17":"tag-russia","18":"tag-unicredit-group"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114852247957527861","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}