The Italian court confirms that Unicardit should leave Russia to complete the BPM acquisition

Stay in view of the free updates

Simply subscribe to European banks Myft Digest – it is delivered directly to your inbox.

An Italian court confirmed that the Unicardit lender must comply with the government request to leave Russia if it wants to complete the acquisition of its competitor, Panco BVM, in a blow to CEO Andrea Orange.

The court ruled that the Georgia Melonian government’s request is “completely legitimate” and “there could be no doubt about the fact that it is correct.”

But he partially supported a call by Unicardit for other measures that Rome demanded as circumstances of acquisition.

In the historical ruling, which was published on Saturday, government recipes were placed on the percentage of post -merger loan in BPM and the maintenance of the supplies of financing the lending project in Italy.

This is the first time that the administrative court has governed any requirements imposed by the government on the strategic seizure deal, and the judges ’decision will completely cancel the current text of the government headquarters.

Orcel has previously warned that the deal may collapse if the government does not relax its requirements.

It was not immediately clear whether any of the two sides in the case would resume more, or whether the government would take back its decree into consideration.

To leave the deal in a forgetfulness. BPM’s presentation period, which was already extended once due to the court case, ends on July 23. If the government does not rewrite its decree, Unicredit may require the deadline for its extension, or one of the parties can appeal against the court’s decision; The deadline can also be suspended by the organizer.

BPM said in a statement that she was pleased with the outcome of the appeal and called Unicredit to “clarify its intentions” in the acquisition.

Unicredit did not immediately comment on the decision. The UNICREDIit Board of Directors is scheduled to meet in the coming days, according to people familiar with the matter.

Unicredit is the second largest lender in Italy. Calcous acquisitions of BPM and Commerzbank were launched in Germany last year.

It has reduced its exposure to Russia since the country has widely invaded Ukraine in 2022, but it is still one of the European lenders who run a local subsidiary.

Orcel has so far refused to exit the country completely to avoid incurring the feature of the public budget. The director should be delegated by the Russian authorities.