Camfin Aims to Raise Pirelli Stake to 29.9% with Bank Support
ROME (Reuters) - Camfin, the family vehicle of Pirelli's executive vice chairman Marco Tronchetti Provera, is planning to increase its stake in the tyremaker to 29.9% from 26.1%, Italian daily Il Messaggero reported on Thursday.
To fund the operation and to cut the cost of its debt, Camfin is working to obtain 650 million euros ($682.96 million) in financing from a pool of banks led by UniCredit and Intesa Sanpaolo and including Banco BPM, the newspaper said.
Camfin is Pirelli's second-largest shareholder behind China's Sinochem which holds a 37% stake. The Chinese group's influence in the company has been curbed by measures taken by the Italian government. Tronchetti Provera has been in charge of Pirelli since 1992.
Last month a senior government official said Italy was checking whether the presence of Sinochem executives on Pirelli's board was in breach of measures Rome imposed to protect the tyremaker's autonomy.
($1 = 0.9517 euros)
(Reporting by Stefano Bernabei, Writing by Alvise Armellini, editing by Giulia Segreti)