Italy

Banca Generali SpA won a U.K. court ruling in a dispute arising out of €344 million ($373 million) worth of securitizations it bought from a trade finance firm, Bloomberg News reported. The Italian wealth manager has the power to remove and replace CFE Advisory Services as the agent in charge of dealings with the noteholders, the UK’s Court of Appeal ruled on Wednesday. The wealth manager, representing the senior noteholders, was in a dispute with issuer Sovereign Credit Opportunities SA and CFE over attempts to appoint its own agent.

ION Group completed the acquisition of Italian asset manager Prelios SpA for €1.35 billion ($1.5 billion), following months of back-and-forth with Italian authorities on the deal, Bloomberg News reported. The acquisition, done through a unit called X3 Group, was financed by a group of banks led by UniCredit SpA, Intesa Sanpaolo SpA and BNP Paribas SA, ION said in a statement Friday. “The deal is part of a broader strategy to improve asset management and efficient decision-making processes through the use of data,” Prelios Chairman Fabrizio Palenzona said in the statement.

A company linked to the Chinese businessman who led the buyout of AC Milan in 2017 is being sued over unpaid debts by a group of investment firms, Bloomberg News reported. Five claims have been filed against British Virgin Islands-based Rossoneri Advance Co. Ltd. involving a combined $187 million in debt due and owed, according to court documents dated July 4. The five plaintiffs are suing for debt, damages, accrued interest and other claims.

UniCredit SpA is working on three significant risk transfer deals linked to as much as €8.5 billion ($9 billion) of loans to Italian and German companies, Bloomberg News reported. The Milan-based bank is selling two so-called SRTs linked to €3.5 billion of leasing contracts with Italian companies and €2 billion euros of Italian small and medium-sized businesses, said the people, who asked not to be named because the deal is private. UniCredit also plans to issue SRTs linked to as much as €3 billion of loans to German SMEs by the summer.

Italy's Benetton family is readying plans to address mounting losses at its eponymous clothing retailer, including parting ways with CEO Massimo Renon after four years, two people close to the group said on Monday, Reuters reported. The board of the clothing group is expected to meet on Tuesday to discuss a net loss of around 230 million euros ($250 million) for 2023 which includes impairments, a source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. That compares with a net loss of 81 million euros in 2022, when revenues totalled 1 billion euros.

Oaktree Capital Management took ownership of Italy’s Inter Milan, one of the most storied football clubs in Europe, after its Chinese owner defaulted on a loan, Bloomberg News reported. The US fund has taken control of the club as of Wednesday after conglomerate Suning Holding Group Co. failed to repay €395 million ($428 million), Oaktree said in an emailed statement. The collateral backing the debt was a majority stake in the football club, Bloomberg News reported.

The Bank of Italy warned on Wednesday against fraudulent video messages circulating online, in which artificial intelligence (AI) technology is used to reproduce fake messages from financial authorities and other institutions, Reuters reported. "Such content, known as deepfakes, is also generated using AI to modify real video or audio in order to convey and add credibility to messages that are untrue and shared with the aim of committing fraud," the central bank said.

Italy’s mounting pile of debt poses an ongoing hazard to the country and its financial system especially if the economy underperforms, its central bank said in a half-yearly stability assessment, Bloomberg News reported. Just weeks since the government unveiled new projections pointing to an increase in borrowings, officials cited prospects for the public finances as “a risk factor.” That’s arguably stronger language than they used in their two financial stability reports last year.

The euro zone’s second and third-biggest economies are about to pile on debt again after three years of fixing their pandemic-bloated public finances, the International Monetary Fund said, Bloomberg News reported. Both France and Italy will see borrowings as a percentage of gross domestic product rise in 2024 and then keep creeping up over the coming half decade, the fund said in its World Economic Outlook released in Washington on Tuesday.