UniCredit Criticizes Government’s Conditions for Banco BPM Takeover Approval

Rome: UniCredit on Tuesday blasted the conditions the government has put on approval for the bank’s bid to take over Banco BPM. UniCredit, Italy’s second biggest bank, launched a hostile bid for BPM, the third biggest, some months ago.

According to Ansa News Agency, the government has set conditions regarding the phasing out of UniCredit’s activities in Russia, loan-to-deposit ratios, and investments in Anima Holding, a fund manager recently acquired by BPM. UniCredit expressed concerns that the conditions could be open to different interpretations and might not align fully with Italian and EU law or decisions by regulatory authorities.

UniCredit stated, “Indeed, the prescriptions imposed to UniCredit, could harm its full freedom and ability to take sound and prudent decisions in the future, and even lead to unintended results, such as the imposition of fines on UniCredit due to alleged failure to comply with any of the prescriptions.”

UniCredit highlighted that, beyond the general ability to request a rec
onsideration of the decision, the decree explicitly allows for the possibility to report to the authority if it is not feasible to implement the prescriptions entirely or partially. Consequently, UniCredit has promptly communicated its views on the decree to the authorities and is awaiting feedback.

Until a response is received, UniCredit is unable to make any definitive decisions regarding its public offer on Banco BPM.