Poste Italiane ready to privatise banking services next year – chairman
Vittorio Mincato, chairman of the Italian post office Poste Italiane SpA, said the group is ready to list on the stock exchange its banking unit Bancoposta by the end of next year.
‘The decision obviously lies with the government,’ Mincato said in an interview with the weekly Il Mondo.
He added that two obstacles still have to be removed for the listing.
The first one regards an EU investigation in the sale of bonds for the state financial group Cassa Depositi e Prestiti SpA. The other one is the legal separation between the post office and Bancoposta, it said.
The weekly said the IPO could represent 25-30 pct of the banking unit’s capital.
Mincato’s mandate expires next year and he said he would be ‘very happy’ to accept another term.
He added that he does not believe that the Poste Italiane can be privatised until postal services are liberalised in 2010.
