Italy

Italy will scale back plans to increase taxes on cryptocurrency capital gains, ruling politicians said on Tuesday, following criticism from the affected industry and rows within the party of the economy minister, Reuters reported. "The tax increase will be significantly reduced during the parliamentary work," lawmaker Giulio Centemero and Treasury Junior Minister Federico Freni, both from the co-ruling League party, said in a statement.
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Italy's Industry Minister Adolfo Urso announced a deal on Tuesday to avert 249 layoffs at suppliers to Stellantis, saying he hoped the breakthrough would help repair strained relations with the carmaker, Reuters reported. Stellantis and Italy's government have been at loggerheads for months, with politicians in Rome accusing Fiat's parent company and its CEO Carlos Tavares of neglecting historic Italian manufacturing sites and moving production abroad.
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Banks have offloaded their debt exposure to Italian toymaker Giochi Preziosi SpA to alternative asset managers after getting engulfed in restructuring talks, Bloomberg News reported. Banco BPM SpA and UniCredit SpA have sold their Giochi Preziosi debt to DeA Capital, while Intesa Sanpaolo SpA offloaded its exposure to Sagitta SGR SpA, an Arrow Global-backed firm advised by Europa Investimenti. Giochi Preziosi has been in talks with lenders for months, after the majority of its roughly €250 million ($265 million) in debt came due earlier this year.
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Recaro has been rescued from bankruptcy. The financial lifeboat comes courtesy of Proma Group, an Italian automotive parts supplier, which yesterday announced that it had signed an investment agreement to take over operations for the world's oldest seat maker, Car and Driver reported. Proma said in a press release that its investment will allow Recaro Automotive, which is based in Germany, to continue operations amidst a transitional phase. That will lead to a European relaunch in January, when OEM production will move to Italy.
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Italy's economy minister said on Thursday he was ready to review proposals to raise a tax on cryptocurrency capital gains, after pressure from some lawmakers in his own party to drop the plan, Reuters reported. "I am willing to consider different forms of taxation for people who keep investments in their portfolio," Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti said. Under the 2025 budget, to be approved by parliament by end-December, the Treasury intends to hike taxation on capital gains from cryptocurrency such as bitcoin to 42% from 26%.
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Germans are eager to sell hundreds of billions of euros’ worth of goods in Italy, while drinking its wines, skiing its Alps and sunning on its beaches. But in the weeks since UniCredit, a multinational bank based in Milan, swooped in to take a 21 percent stake in Commerzbank, one of Germany’s largest lenders, that fondness has been shown to have its limits, the New York Times reported.
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