Italian insurer Fondiaria said yesterday that it planned to continue merger talks with fellow domestic insurer SAI but would also open merger talks with Toro, Fiat's insurance arm.
SAI attempted to take a 30% minority controlling stake in Florence-based Fondiaria in December last year. Italian regulator ISVAP blocked the takeover, saying SAI was not financially strong enough to absorb the company.
Earlier this year, Toro agreed to buy 24.4% of Fondiaria. It also approached Fondiaria with merger proposals last week.
The Financial Times reported today that Fondiaria's chief executive Roberto Gavazzi hoped to seal a three-way merger with SAI and Toro. Such a merger would create Italy's second largest insurance group.
According to the FT, Gavazzi said: "All three of us are too small separately - not for Italy, but in five or ten years time, for Europe.
We could merge with Toro, or we could merge with SAI, but I would prefer a merger of the three companies together."
Although SAI's original takeover plan was blocked by regulators, it is thought that they might approve a different deal which involved a full merger.
