Over 6,000 job losses if UniCredit takes over says BPM

(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 27 - The CEO of Banco BPM, Giuseppe Castagna, wrote a letter to staff Wednesday saying there would be estimated job losses of at least 6,000 if Italy's second-biggest bank UniCredit succeeds in its hostile takeover bid for the country's third-biggest.
    Raising an alarm on the employment implications of a merger with UniCredit, Castagna said: "The cost synergies estimated by the bidder, equal to over a third of Banco BPM's cost base, are also of great concern, which can be estimated to mean staff cuts of over 6,000. " Castagna also "no to those who do not take into account our value" and stressed that "we are a large autonomous bank, and we move forward alone".
    He said: "We are a large autonomous bank, Italian with a strong vocation of closeness to the territories and to SMEs, the backbone of our country.
    "We must continue in this direction, remaining in the path we have traced and continuing to do our job well, as we have always done.
    "This is the right path to grow alone and not become the object of operations that do not take into account the value expressed by our Bank today and, even more so, in the near future".
    (ANSA).