BPI Spaghetti junction

The battle for control of Banca Antonveneta, an E7bn-plus Italian bank, has now descended into complete chaos. One offer, from the Netherlands’ ABN Amro, last week elapsed without getting enough shares to go ahead. And now two rival offers, by Banca Popolare Italiana, have been suspended by Consob, the stockmarket watchdog. Consob has given a menu of reasons for freezing the bids. First, there is the question of whether BPI was secretly working with other investors. The regulator thinks it has ...