The EU Antitrust gives the green light to Unicredit-Banco Bpm. “Yes, with the sale of 209 branches”

MILAN – The EU antitrust has approved the acquisition of Banco Bpm by Unicredit , subject to full compliance with the commitments undertaken. In detail, the bank led by Andrea Orcel has committed to divest 209 branches (equal to 14% of the total) for the EU, the commitment fully resolves competition concerns.

With the commitments, concerns about competition disappear

“The transaction, as modified by the commitments, – the Commission writes – will no longer raise competition concerns in the deposit and lending markets, both for retail consumers and for SMEs. The Commission rejected the request of the Italian competition authority to refer the concentration for its assessment .

Decision divided into four strands

The European antitrust decision on the takeover bid launched by Unicredit on its rival has been divided into four strands. The first two, those communicated today, concern the competence of the competition procedure and the actual decision from a competition perspective . The other two strands, for which there is currently no deadline set, concern art.21 paragraph 4 of the European regulation on concentrations and the Eu Pilot procedure . The latter two concern the Golden Power discipline adopted by Italy with subsequent laws, the last of which in 2021 by the Draghi government.