By Giuseppe Fonte, Valentina Za and Elvira Pollina
ROME/MILAN (Reuters) -UniCredit filed an appeal on Monday with Italy’s top administrative court over government-set terms for its failed takeover bid for rival Banco BPM, two sources with knowledge of the matter said.
The move marks a further escalation in the dispute between Italy’s second-biggest bank, led since 2021 by veteran investment banker Andrea Orcel, and the administration of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
The government, which was aware of UniCredit’s move, sees it as a “hostile act”, one of the two sources said.
UniCredit declined to comment. When it first challenged the government’s decision in a lower court, securing an only partially favourable verdict, the bank said it had done so to have better legal clarity around the decision.
GOVERNMENT WANTS UNICREDIT TO EXIT RUSSIA
The ruling against which UniCredit has appealed scrapped some of the government-set terms, but confirmed a key request for the bank to exit Russia.
Monday was the deadline for UniCredit to finalise the appeal, after it laid the ground for the move in the preceding weeks, when an earlier deadline to move ahead lapsed.
In abandoning the BPM acquisition in July, UniCredit blamed the government for derailing its 15 billion euro ($17.49 billion) all-share takeover offer.
The legal appeal would provide further clarity around the matter, protecting the bank’s interests in the view of some of its board members, a third person close to the matter said.
Italian daily La Repubblica first reported on Monday the bank was weighing such a move.
EU SET TO ACT AGAINST ITALY’S GOLDEN POWERS
Italy’s use of its ‘golden powers’ to vet bank deals has also brought Rome onto a collision course with Brussels, with the European Commission expected to tell the government later this month to axe the BPM bid decision and revise the golden power legislation.
Italian officials have talked to UniCredit representatives in recent weeks to dissuade the bank from taking legal steps ahead of the EU move, a further source said.
A victory before the top administrative court would help UniCredit to potentially seek billions of euros in compensation from the government at a later stage.
Under Orcel, one of Europe’s best-known dealmakers, UniCredit has embarked upon an ambitious M&A strategy which has so far failed to deliver a deal.
UniCredit has bought 29% of Germany’s Commerzbank, angering the Berlin government, and 29.5% of Greece’s Alpha Bank.
($1 = 0.8575 euros)
(Reporting by Giuseppe Fonte in Rome, Valentina Za and Elvira Pollina in Milan; Editing by Giselda Vagnoni and Jan Harvey)
