By Giuseppe Fonte and Angelo Amante
ROME (Reuters) -Italian Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti said on Wednesday he would resign if he were overruled on “golden power” conditions the government has tied to UniCredit’s bid for smaller bank Banco BPM.
Giorgetti, from the hard-right League party, was speaking in the Senate after reports in Italian newspapers, citing government sources, suggested that changes in the conditions were possible, but were being resisted by the minister.
He told reporters that without the full support of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on the UniCredit-Banco BPM he would quit immediately.
“If there were the slightest misalignment (with Meloni) you wouldn’t find a resignation threat, but the resignation itself. You don’t announce your resignation, you do it,” Giorgetti said.
UniCredit’s swoop on BPM, which derailed Rome’s plans to combine BPM with state-backed Monte dei Paschi di Siena, is part of a wave of proposed takeover bids rocking Italian banking.
In order to clear the deal, Meloni’s administration has given UniCredit nine months to cease its activities in Russia and asked it not to reduce BPM’s loan-to-deposit ratio for five years.
The co-ruling Forza Italia party, led by Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, is pushing Meloni to ease these conditions, political sources have told Reuters.
The party is being lobbied by Italian firms that are still relying on UniCredit to pursue their business activities in Russia, the sources said, even though these have been much-reduced since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Giorgetti is determined to maintain a hard-line on UniCredit after the government said it was protecting Rome’s strategic interests by avoiding “even the slightest risk” of aiding Russia’s economy where the bank operates.
Meloni has not recently spoken publicly on the issue.
Giorgetti said the government was focused on monitoring compliance with the golden power conditions, and its response to issues raised by both Banco BPM and UniCredit would be fully coordinated between the Treasury and Meloni’s office.
UniCredit has appealed to an administrative court against the terms set by the government, and its CEO Andrea Orcel said on Tuesday it could let the offer lapse because it was no longer financially advantageous under the conditions imposed.
Banco BPM also said it would appeal to an administrative court against a decision by Italian market regulator Consob to suspend the buyout offer for 30 days, to give UniCredit time to negotiate the golden power terms with the government.
“They all go to court in this country and things get messy,” Giorgetti said.
(writing by Alvise Armellini, editing by Gavin Jones)
