BRUSSELS (Reuters) -EU antitrust regulators have extended their decision deadline on Italian bank UniCredit’s takeover bid for its smaller rival Banco BPM after a national watchdog asked to take over the review, a European Commission filing showed.
The EU competition enforcer’s website showed a national agency had submitted a request on May 14 but did not name the country. It said it was now assessing the request.
The Commission, which had originally set a June 4 deadline for its decision, will now decide by June 19 whether to clear the deal, with or without conditions, open a full-scale investigation or hand it over to the national regulator.
The Italian competition regulator declined to comment. The Italian government has imposed conditions on the deal via its “golden power” law.
(Reporting by Foo Yun CheeEditing by Tomasz Janowski)
