Latest news with #ItalianGovernment
Yahoo
23-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
UniCredit withdraws bid for Banco BPM due to 'golden power' uncertainty
UniCredit's board of directors has announced the withdrawal of its bid for Banco BPM, after months of negotiations and intervention by the Italian government. The bank's reasoning behind the decision to pull out is the Italian government's implementation of the so-called golden power rule, requested by the Banco BPM management. Golden power is the instrument with which, in exceptional cases, a country's leadership can de facto condition or even prohibit a market transaction. According to UniCredit, the instrument would have made it impossible to complete the negotiations within the deadline set for the offer, depriving Banco's shareholders of the dialogue that normally takes place during an offer period to understand the value created by the takeover and determine the conditions that would be acceptable to move forward. Related Asian markets rise, Toyota up by 14% after US tariff deal "While we welcome the significant progress made with the TAR (Regional administrative tribunals), EU DG for Competition and the Italian government, the timeframe for a final resolution of the golden power issue goes well beyond the expiration of our offer and also that of the suspension decided today by CONSOB," reads the note in which UniCredit announced the withdrawal of the offer. "The offer process has been affected by the golden power clause, insistently invoked by BPM's top management, which has prevented UniCredit from engaging in dialogue with BPM's shareholders in the way that a normal offer process would have allowed," the group writes further. "This is a missed opportunity not only for BPM's stakeholders but also for the Italian business community and the economy in general. UniCredit remains convinced that the consolidation of the Italian banking sector would benefit both the country and Europe as a whole," the note concludes.
Reuters
23-07-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Italy to add 15,000 prison places to ease overcrowding
ROME, July 23 (Reuters) - Italy's government has pledged to expand prison capacity by up 15,000 places and facilitate the transfer of inmates with addiction problems to treatment centres to tackle a long-standing overcrowding crisis. The plight of prisoners has attracted more attention in Italy following a record number of suicides last year and complaints about soaring summer temperatures in detention facilities that are not air-conditioned. As of July 15, the country had 62,986 inmates, and an effective capacity in prisons of 47,289, justice ministry data showed. This gives Italy an occupancy rate of around 133%, one of the worst in Europe. According to the World Prison Brief database, only Cyprus and France fare worse. Last year the Italian parliament approved a law to improve jail conditions, but it had little practical effect. "We believe that a just state should adjust the capacity of prisons to the number of people that need to serve their sentences," Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said in a statement late on Tuesday. Her government presented a 758-million-euro ($890 million) plan to expand prison capacity by almost 10,000 by 2027, and a separate initiative for which it gave no budget to create an additional 5,000 places within five years. It also adopted a draft law - which will need parliamentary approval - to allow a sizeable portion of inmates with alcohol or drug addictions to leave prison and serve their sentences in rehab centres. "These are people who need treatment rather than criminals who need punishment," Justice Minister Carlo Nordio said, noting that inmates with addiction issues make up almost a third of the prison population. Nordio also referred to last week's announcement that up to around 10,000 inmates nearing the end of their sentencing could be eligible for house arrest or probation. His ministry has set up a taskforce to speed up the assessment of these cases. The early release of prisoners is set to be gradual, however, partly due to the political sensitivity of the move for a right-wing government such as Meloni's, known for its tough approach on law and order. ($1 = 0.8513 euros)
Wall Street Journal
22-07-2025
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
Italy's UniCredit Withdraws Offer to Buy Banco BPM
UniCredit UCG 0.07%increase; green up pointing triangle said it withdrew its acquisition offer for Banco BPM BAMI 1.23%increase; green up pointing triangle, citing complaints related to the golden power provision that allows the Italian government to impose conditions on corporate transactions. UniCredit, Italy's second largest bank, offered to buy smaller peer BPM in November in an all-stock deal valued at 10.1 billion euros ($11.81 billion) at the time.
Bloomberg
22-07-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
UniCredit Drops BPM Takeover Bid Amid Government Opposition
UniCredit SpA dropped its bid for rival Banco BPM SpA, ending an eight-month standoff with its rival and the Italian government over the plan to create the country's largest lender. The bank's board decided to withdraw the offer for Banco BPM because the condition relating to government authorization was not satisfied, it said in a statement late Tuesday. UniCredit said that while progress had been made in talks with authorities, a definitive resolution would have gone beyond the extended offer period.
Bloomberg
16-07-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
ECB Should Cut Rates to Weaken Euro, Italy's Deputy Premier Says
The European Central Bank should reduce borrowing costs to help the economy by weakening the single currency, Italian Deputy Premier Antonio Tajani said. 'We have to ensure that the euro-dollar exchange rate isn't so detrimental to the euro, which is currently too strong,' Tajani, who is also foreign minister, was quoted as saying by Italian newswire Ansa. 'The ECB needs to intervene.'
