Brussels, 27/04/2011 (Agence Europe) - Following a meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Rome on Tuesday 26 April, President of the Italian Council Silvio Berlusconi said he did not believe the takeover bid by French dairy group Lactalis of its Italian competitor Parmalat, one of the issues that has soured recent relations between Rome and Paris (see EUROPE 10356), to be “hostile”.
The Italian prime minister said it was “strange” that the French group's bid had been launched precisely on the day that the Italy-France summit was to take place. Seeking to defuse the situation, he added: “It is for that reason, indeed, that I absolutely rule out any possibility that the French government was aware of this coincidence”. Drawing discussion of this issue to a close, he said he hoped that “Italian groups will be able to agree on a proposal so that agreement can be reached to ensure Italian share ownership along with Lactalis”. Speaking more generally, Berlusconi said he hoped for “major Franco-Italian and Italo-French groups that could co-exist in global competition”. The French president agreed. He said that Parmalat and Lactalis were private companies and that “Berlusconi and I believe in the market economy”.
On 22 March, the French group increased its holding in the Italian group from 11.42% to 29%. Italian attempts to ward off the complete takeover of Parmalat, one of the jewels of the Italian agri-food industry, by Lactalis recently led to Italy's asking the Internal Market staff at the Commission for explanations. The Italian government tried to borrow some time in the face of a possible takeover bid by authorising Parmalat to postpone its Board meeting until the end of June. At the same time, it tried to put in place an investment fund, along the same lines as the French strategic investment fund, to purchase shares in “strategic” national groups to avoid their being taken over by foreign companies.
Acquisition of total control of Parmalat by Lactalis would push the entity resulting from the merger into the top flight of the global dairy sector with a turnover of around €14 billion. The European Commission is now awaiting official notification of the operation to assess whether it complies with European competition rules. (F.G./transl.rt)