BNP Paribas Cleared For Takeover Of Italian Bank

by Ulrika Lomas, for LawAndTax-News.com, Brussels

30 March 2006

The European Commission on Tuesday announced that under the EU Merger Regulation, it has cleared the proposed acquisition of the Italian banking group Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL) by BNP Paribas (BNPP), having concluded that the operation would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area (EEA) or any a substantial part of it.

BNPP is a French banking and financial group active internationally in three main areas: financing and investment, retail banking and asset management. BNL is listed on the Milan Stock Exchange and is also mainly active in three areas: banking services, financial services and insurance products. It generates virtually all of its turnover in Italy.

In a statement, the EC explained that:

"The Commission’s examination showed that there was only limited horizontal overlapping between BNL and BNPP and that, for all the financial services concerned, the combined entity will still face sufficient competition from a number of operators, some of whom have large market shares."

BNP Paribas also announced earlier this month that it had received approval from the Bank of Italy for the merger.

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