Italy

Italy's Treasury is discussing with European Union authorities the possibility of extending by more than two years a 2021 deadline to cut Rome's 64% stake in ailing bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS), Reuters reported. Under the terms of a 5.4 billion euro ($6.12 billion) state bailout agreed with Brussels in 2017, Italy was supposed to have a deal in place by the end of this year to re-privatise MPS, but this has not proved possible. Talks to sell the Tuscan lender to the country's No.2 bank UniCredit collapsed in October, leaving the Treasury chasing alternative options.

Telecom Italia (TIM) has received a 10.8 billion euro ($12 billion) approach from U.S. fund KKR aimed at taking Italy's biggest phone group private, the company said on Sunday, Reuters reported. KKR's move comes as TIM's CEO Luigi Gubitosi battles for survival after coming under fire from top investor Vivendi following two profit warnings in three months. TIM said KKR had set an indicative price of 0.505 euros for its possible buyout offer -- a 45.7% premium to the ordinary shares' closing price on Friday. KKR would also offer the same price for TIM's savings shares.

Italian prosecutors have asked a judge to drop a case against Vivendi's owner and CEO for alleged market manipulation and obstruction of regulators in the French group's stakebuilding in Italy's Mediaset, one judicial and one legal source said, Reuters reported. Prosecutors had investigated allegations that Vivendi's billionaire owner Vincent Bollore and CEO Arnaud De Puyfontaine used the prospect - and then collapse - of a deal to buy Mediaset's pay TV arm to drive down the Italian firm's shares and buy them on the cheap in 2016.

Italy on Sunday ended talks with UniCredit over the sale of Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) in a major setback to years-long efforts by the Rome government to return the ailing Tuscan bank to private hands, Reuters reported. Failure to bridge a multi-billion euro valuation gap between the parties leaves Italy unable to complete the restructuring of its banking system which it started six years ago. Rome will now seek an extension of deadlines agreed with European Union authorities to re-privatise MPS and a Treasury official said it did not expect discussions to be difficult.

Italy has urged the European Union to start work immediately on a plan to create a joint storage system for strategic gas reserves, Prime Minister Mario Draghi said on Friday, Reuters reported. Speaking to reporters after an EU summit, Draghi said Brussels needed to draw up an inventory of gas reserves that are available today across the bloc. "On energy, Italy underlined the need to intervene immediately at a European level," Draghi said. European gas prices have soared in recent weeks amid tight supply and surging CO2 prices as economies gradually emerge from the health pandemic.

Recent debt restructurings of distressed Italian corporates, including ferry operator Moby, construction group Astaldi and building product company Officine Maccaferri, highlight bondholders’ exposure to greater complexities and uncertainties in Italian corporate restructuring processes compared to more creditor-friendly European jurisdictions, Fitch Ratings said in a report released today.

Italy has been asked to provide more than 7 billion euros ($8 billion) in capital to UniCredit to strike a deal over Monte dei Paschi and offload as much as possible of the state-owned bank to the stronger rival, Reuters reported. UniCredit, Italy's No. 2 lender, agreed on July 29 to discuss buying selected parts of Monte dei Paschi (MPS) from Italy's Treasury, which rescued the Tuscan bank in 2017, spending 5.4 billion euros. Under the terms of the bailout, Italy must cut its 64% stake in MPS by mid-2022 at the latest.

Italy’s president on Monday strongly criticized the violence that has erupted amid protests over the country’s new coronavirus workplace health pass requirement, saying it appeared aimed at jeopardizing Italy’s economic recovery, the Associated Press reported. President Sergio Mattarella spoke out as riot police again clashed with protesters at the port in the northern city of Trieste, at times using water canons to push them back. The protesters, who have included right-wing agitators in previous episodes, oppose Italy’s Green Pass requirement.

A prolonged increase in energy prices could have a negative impact on Italy’s local administrations forcing the government to step in to help keep offices, hospitals and schools functioning properly, Finance Ministry Undersecretary Maria Cecilia Guerra said, Bloomberg News reported. “I think it would be useful to look at the impact on local administrations because the increase in energy costs could be hard on them,” Guerra said in an interview in Rome.

Alitalia, a one-time symbol of Italian style and glamour brought low by economic mismanagement, will operate its last flight on Thursday after 75 years, before handing over to its downsized successor Italia Trasporto Aereo (ITA), Reuters reported. The traditional choice of popes, prima donnas and Italy's political elite, Alitalia has been run by state-appointed administrators since 2017 to avoid being liquidated.