ROME (Reuters) – UniCredit is considering all available strategic options, consistently with its 2022-2024 plan, a spokesperson said, after an Italian newspaper reported that the lender could make a possible bid on smaller rival Banco BPM. Italy’s second-largest bank has not called an extraordinary board meeting and will inform the market of any concrete development, the spokesman said in an emailed statement. Shares in Banco BPM on Friday failed to open after daily Il Messaggero reported in its print edition that UniCredit might submit a bid proposal for Banco BPM during the weekend. Later on, its website, the newspaper, citing financial sources, backtracked and said there was “no manouevring at the moment” as the conditions do not exist.
(Reporting by Gianluca Semeraro, editing by Giulia Segreti)
