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'Free market in EU' says Tajani of UniCredit-Commerzbank

'If an Italian buys it's not a common market anymore'

Redazione Ansa

(ANSA) - ROME, SEP 24 - Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said "there is a free market in Europe", commenting UniCredit's announcement Monday that it had entered into financial instruments enabling it to increase its stake in Commerzbank to 21% of the capital and Berlin's opposition to the operation.
    Tajani said he didn't understand why "when someone comes to buy in Italy we are told that we are in a European system" and then "if an Italian buys, it's not a single market anymore".
    Italy's second-largest lender also said on Monday that it has requested the European Central Bank for authorization to raise its stake beyond 10% of the capital to reach a holding of up to 29.9% in the German bank.
    The move prompted German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to say that the Italian bank's attempt to participate in the German lender without consultation was an "unfriendly act" which was "inappropriate in Europe and Germany".
    "Unfriendly attacks, hostile takeovers are not a good thing for banks and that is why the German government has clearly positioned itself in this direction," Scholz said on the sidelines of a visit to New York. (ANSA).
   

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