Intesa Sanpaolo said it could team up with Ferrero, maker of Nutella, to help keep Italy's biggest listed food group Parmalat in Italian hands, while the government moved to ward off foreign bids. The traditionally media-shy Ferrero group said it was closely watching the battle for Parmalat between three foreign investment funds and French dairy group Lactalis but stopped short of saying it would take part in any bid.
"In the Parmalat case, the Ferrero group is looking with interest and sympathy at an industrial Italian solution," the company said in an email sent to Reuters. The chief executive of Intesa Sanpaolo, Corrado Passera, said later on Saturday that Italy's biggest retail bank was ready to lend its support to a strong industrial project for Parmalat and could team up with Ferrero.
"Their (Ferrero) statement means they have accepted invitations coming from various parts," Passera told reporters at the margins of a conference in the northern lakeside town of Cernobbio. "There should be a strong industrial project we will support that," Passera said. He declined to give details of any possible alliance with Ferrero for Parmalat.
The bank had already said it was open to taking part in an Italian consortium for Parmalat and was backing Chief Executive Enrico Bondi, the architect of Parmalat's turnaround after its massive collapse in 2003, in a list of board members it presented on Friday. The comments came after Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti presented the cabinet on Friday with the outlines of a possible legal measure to protect strategic Italian companies from foreign buyers.
Industry Minister Paolo Romani said Rome hoped to win support from other Italian companies. "Faced with the possibility that some major Italian companies could fall into French hands, the government is verifying the possibility of doing something," he told reporters in Cernobbio.
Three foreign funds - Mackenzie Financial Corp, Skagen AS and Zenit Asset Management AB - owning a combined 15 percent of Parmalat are trying to replace Parmalat's management by winning shareholder support at a general meeting on April 12-14. They face competition from Lactalis, one of Europe's biggest dairy groups, other Italian funds and Intesa Sanpaolo. The battle for control of Parmalat has sparked fears in Rome over the loss of another Italian asset to foreign buyers following this month's take-over of jeweller Bulgari by French luxury group LVMH.