Banco BPM urges UniCredit to drop bid if it can't meet govt's demands
MILAN, May 22 (Reuters) - Banco BPM (BAMI.MI), opens new tab on Thursday urged suitor UniCredit (CRDI.MI), opens new tab to abandon its buyout offer, given the bank led by CEO Andrea Orcel has told authorities it cannot comply with the conditions Rome has imposed to authorise the BPM takeover.
UniCredit on Wednesday secured from market regulator Consob a 30-day suspension of its tender offer for Banco BPM as it seeks to persuade the government the conditions cannot be met in their current form.
A government source told Reuters on Wednesday the government has no intention of altering its demands.
Banco BPM said UniCredit had not made clear to investors what it had told authorities in Rome instead, meaning the conditions Italy has imposed in the name of national security interests cannot be implemented.
Such a predicament "which was also never disclosed by UniCredit to the market, should in itself cause the offer to lapse", the bank said.
UniCredit has raised objections to the prescriptions and engaged with the government officials who are in charge of monitoring they are implemented in an effort to prove it is impossible to comply.
Orcel has antagonised Italy's government by swooping on BPM in November, a move that thwarted Rome's efforts to encourage a tie-up between BPM and state-backed Monte dei Paschi di Siena (BMPS.MI), opens new tab.
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The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Salvagers to remove Mike Lynch's superyacht Bayesian from sea off Sicily
Salvage teams in Sicily have said they aim to bring Mike Lynch's superyacht 'fully and finally out of the water' on Saturday after it sank during a storm, killing seven people including the tech tycoon and his teenage daughter. The white top and blue hull of the Bayesian, which ran into trouble off the coast of the Italian island in August last year, emerged from the sea on Friday to sit the holding area of a yellow floating crane barge. Once fully out of the water, the 56-metre (184ft) vessel will be transported to the port of Termini Imerese, where investigators are expected to examine it as part of an inquiry into the cause of the sinking. 'Pumping out of sea water will continue and it will be [Saturday] lunchtime, following a series of lifting and resting procedures to satisfy the salvage team, before Bayesian is fully and finally out of the water,' said David Wilson, a spokesperson for TMC Maritime, which is conducting the recovery operation. Over the last three days the Bayesian has been slowly raised from the seabed, 50 metres (165ft) below, to allow steel lifting straps, slings and harnesses to be secured under the keel. The operation, which has cost approximately $30m (£22m), was made easier after the vessel's 72-metre mast was detached using a remote-controlled cutting tool and placed on the seabed on Tuesday. Eight steel lifting straps were being used to support the hull upright and to form part of a steel wire lifting system to raise the vessel. Sea water was pumped from the hull as it was lifted. TMC Maritime, a British-based consultancy, said the vessel would be held upright, out of the water, for checks and preparations for its final journey. On Sunday, it is anticipated the floating crane platform will move the Bayesian to a special steel cradle at Termini Imerese. The Bayesian was anchored just offshore near the port of Porticello, in the province of Palermo, when it sank during a violent storm shortly before dawn on 19 August 2024. Lynch had been cleared two months earlier of fraud charges in the US relating to the purchase of his company, Autonomy, by Hewlett-Packard in 2011, and was enjoying a voyage around Sicily to celebrate with his 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, and his wife, Angela Bacares, whose company owned the Bayesian. The lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife, Neda, the banker Jonathan Bloomer and his wife, Judy, and the yacht's chef, Recaldo Thomas, were also killed when the vessel sank. Nine other crew members and six guests – including Bacares – were rescued. Sign up to Headlines Europe A digest of the morning's main headlines from the Europe edition emailed direct to you every week day after newsletter promotion The complex salvage operation was temporarily suspended in mid-May after Rob Cornelis Maria Huijben, a 39-year-old Dutch diver, died during underwater work. Investigators hope the yacht will yield clues to the causes of the sinking. A forensic examination will seek to determine whether one of the hatches remained open and whether the keel was improperly raised. Prosecutors have opened an inquiry into suspected manslaughter. The boat's captain, James Cutfield, from New Zealand, and two British crew members, Tim Parker Eaton and Matthew Griffiths, have been placed under investigation. In Italy, this does not imply guilt or mean that formal charges will necessarily follow. According to a preliminary safety report released last month by the UK's Marine Accident Investigation Branch, the Bayesian may have been vulnerable to high winds when running on its engine. These 'vulnerabilities' were 'unknown to either the owner or the crew' as they were not included in the stability information book onboard. The MAIB said a possible 'tornadic waterspout' headed towards the boats in the harbour. The docks seemed to divert the whirlwind, which went straight towards the Bayesian, and the vessel sank within a few seconds. In September, Italian authorities requested additional security around the wreck after fears were raised that material in watertight safes onboard might be of interest to foreign governments. Associated Press contributed to this report.
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Tech tycoon Lynch's doomed Bayesian yacht lifted to surface
PORTICELLO, Italy, June 21 (Reuters) - Salvage experts lifted Mike Lynch's sunken superyacht to the surface and began pumping seawater out of it on Saturday, 10 months after it sank off the coast of Sicily, killing the British tech tycoon, his teenage daughter and five others. Work resumed at first light, with one of the most powerful maritime cranes in Europe having been used to haul the 56-metre-long (184-foot) Bayesian from beneath the waves. The upper decks appeared badly damaged while the blue hull was encrusted with mud. The Bayesian was moored off the small port of Porticello, near Palermo, in August last year when it sank during a sudden storm. The yacht was vulnerable to violent winds and was probably knocked over by gusts of more than 117 km (73 miles) per hour, an interim British report said last month. The vessel will be held in an elevated position over the weekend while checks and preparations are made, said TMC Marine, which has been leading the salvage operation, working with Dutch specialists Hebo Maritiemservice to lift the yacht 50 metres from the seabed over the past few days. It is then expected to be transported to the nearby port of Termini Imerese on Monday and handed over to the authorities who are investigating the sinking. The recovery process has been made easier after the vessel's 72-metre mast was detached using a remote-controlled cutting tool and placed on the seabed on Tuesday. In addition to Lynch, founder of the software company Autonomy, his daughter Hannah, lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda, banker Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy, and chef Recaldo Thomas were killed when the yacht sank. Nine other crew members and six guests were rescued.
The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
Superyacht is pulled from the seabed 10 months after sinking off Sicily
A British-flagged luxury superyacht that sank off Sicily last year, killing U.K. tech magnate Mike Lynch and six others, partially resurfaced Saturday as salvage recovery crews finalized the complex operation to bring it ashore for further investigation. The white top and blue hull of the 56-meter (184-foot) Bayesian was visible on the surface but was not clear of the sea yet in a holding area of a yellow floating crane barge. 'Pumping out of sea water will continue and it will be lunchtime, following a series of lifting and resting procedures to satisfy the salvage team, before Bayesian is fully and finally out of the water,' said David Wilson, spokesman for TMC Maritime, which is conducting the recovery operation. The Bayesian sank Aug. 19 off Porticello, near Palermo, during a violent storm as Lynch was treating friends to a cruise to celebrate his acquittal two months earlier in the U.S. on fraud charges. Lynch, his daughter and five others died. Fifteen people survived, including the captain and all crew members except the chef. Italian authorities are conducting a full criminal investigation. TMC Maritime said the vessel has been slowly raised from the seabed, 50 meters (165-feet) down, over the past three days to allow the steel lifting straps, slings and harnesses to be secured under the keel. Eight steel lifting straps are being used to support the hull upright and to form part of a steel wire lifting system that began raising the vessel out of the water Saturday. As it is lifted up, sea water is pumped out of the hull. TMC Maritime said the vessel will be held upright, out of the water, for checks and preparations for its final journey. On Sunday, it is anticipated the floating crane platform will move the Bayesian to the Sicilian port of Termini Imerese, where a special steel cradle is waiting for it. The Bayesian is missing its 72-meter (236-foot) mast, which was cut off and left on the seabed for future removal. The mast had to be detached to allow the hull to be brought to a nearly upright position that would allow the craft to be raised. British investigators said in an interim report issued last month that the yacht was knocked over by 'extreme wind' and couldn't recover. The report said the Bayesian had chosen the site where it sank as shelter from forecast thunderstorms. Wind speeds exceeded 70 knots (81 mph) at the time of the sinking and 'violently' knocked the vessel over to a 90-degree angle in under 15 seconds. Lynch, who sold Autonomy, a software maker he founded in 1996, to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion in 2011, had been acquitted on fraud charges in June 2024 by a federal court jury in San Francisco.
