Unipol/BNL Italian interloper

Banca Popolare di Lodi showed that Italian financial institutions have no qualms about bidding for companies they can’t afford. Is Unipol going down the same path? The Italian insurer has said that it wants to raise its stake in BNL, a regional lender which is currently subject to a takeover bid from Spain’s BBVA. The news prompted a 5% rally in BNL stock. Like so many large share price movements in Italy, the market reaction is not easy to explain. Unipol is worth about one third of BNL and cou...