ROME (Reuters) – UniCredit Chief Executive Andrea Orcel ruled out on Tuesday that talks with Italy’s Treasury over the sale of state-owned bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena could resume.
“The negotiations are over, I’m sorry about that, but they’re over,” Orcel told RaiNews24 television channel after attending the Bank of Italy’s annual general meeting in Rome.
Orcel also said Russia, where UniCredit owns the country’s 14th largest bank, no longer posed a problem for the Italian lender after it set aside money in the first quarter to cover potential losses. UniCredit has booked over 70% of the potential maximum capital hit from its Russian exposure.
(Reporting by Valentina Za, editing by Gianluca Semeraro)
