Italy

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi played down concerns that widening government bond spreads may put the improvement of the country’s finances at risk, Reuters reported. “Spread rose for almost every country,” Draghi said at a press conference Friday in Rome, adding that sustained growth and budget discipline are key to keeping finances in check. Yields on Italian bonds rose sharply this week after the European Central Bank signaled mounting inflation concerns and a potential acceleration in dialing back monetary stimulus.

Stellantis is preparing to early repay a 6.3 billion euros ($7 billion) loan backed by Italian government its predecessor Fiat Chrysler obtained at the peak of a COVID-19 outbreak, two sources close to the matter said on Thursday, Reuters reported. Repaying the loan potentially frees Stellantis from a set of conditions that Rome attached to it, including preserving jobs at its Italian operations, timely paying suppliers that are crucial for local plants or financing domestic investments, in particular for electric vehicles. The repayment is imminent, one of the sources said.

Germany's flagship carrier Lufthansa is in talks to buy a 40% stake in state-owned Alitalia's successor ITA Airways, two people familiar with the negotiations said on Sunday, following a newspaper report that a deal could be unveiled next week, Reuters reported. The talks about a tie-up between Germany's partly state-owned Lufthansa and ITA Airways are still ongoing with all outcomes possible, one of the sources said on condition of anonymity, adding the stake price was still under negotiation.

Moby SpA, the ferry company that connects Italy’s mainland with its islands, filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy proceedings in the U.S. as it seeks to complete a troubled restructuring process at home, Bloomberg News reported. Moby, owned by the Onorato family, has been under pressure from increasing regulation, tougher competition and weak freight traffic volumes in the last years, and was further hit by the pandemic travel restrictions. In June 2020, the company petitioned a court in Milan for a court-supervised restructuring procedure, but its revenue grew above expectations this summer.

Italy is facing fresh questions about the viability of its debt as the European Central Bank dials back emergency support that has helped the euro zone's most indebted economies survive the coronavirus pandemic, Reuters reported. Fighting the economic and health crisis has been expensive, with governments digging deep to help businesses and households. Italy's public debt has increased from 134.8% of GDP in 2019 to a targeted 153.5% this year.

The Italian Sea Group said on Wednesday that it had bought bankrupt luxury yacht maker Perini Navi for 80 million euros ($91 million) in an auction held by a court in Lucca, Tuscany, Reuters reported. Italian yacht makers Ferretti Group and SanLorenzo (SNL.MI) had also offered to buy the luxury sailing brand Perini Navi, which was declared bankrupt in January.

UniCredit SpA said that it plans to expand by hiring staff and investing in digitization as part of a three-year strategic plan that includes share buybacks and bigger dividends, the Wall Street Journal reported. The plan, the first since Chief Executive Andrea Orcel took the helm in April, targets annual revenue growth of about 2% and profit growth of 10% through 2024. UniCredit, Italy’s second-largest bank by assets, said it would distribute at least €16 billion, equivalent to $18.2 billion, to investors in dividends and share buybacks over the next three years.

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.