Italy picks antitrust expert to lead market watchdog Consob

By Giuseppe Fonte and Angelo Amante

ROME, July 14 (Reuters) - Italy's government on Tuesday nominated senior official Guido Stazi as the new head of the Milan bourse watchdog Consob, political sources said, ending a months-long dispute within Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's right-wing coalition.

Stazi, 68, is currently secretary-general of Italy's antitrust regulator and will succeed former Consob president Paolo Savona, 89, whose seven-year term ended in March.

The nomination was decided at a cabinet meeting. It will now be reviewed by some parliamentary panels and must ultimately be approved by President Sergio Mattarella, but is not expected to face obstacles.

The co-ruling League party tried for months to promote the appointment of Junior Treasury Minister Federico Freni to Consob, while its government ally Forza Italia argued that a technocrat would be more suitable for the role.

Opposition parties had also called for an independent figure to lead the market regulator, after a then senior economy ministry official became caught up in a judicial investigation into last year's successful takeover of bank Mediobanca by state-backed rival Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS).

ANTITRUST HEAD ALSO CLOSE TO APPOINTMENT

As part of a political agreement, the coalition is set to nominate Saverio Valentino, board member of the competition authority, as new head of that regulator, the sources added.

Stazi's appointment comes as the government has apparently taken a less interventionist role in the Italian banking M&A wave, which Intesa Sanpaolo rekindled last month by making a €30.6 billion ($34.8 billion) ⁠unsolicited cash-and-share bid to buy MPS.

His arrival at Consob also follows long-running efforts by the government to address issues holding back the country's capital markets and boost the Milan stock exchange's ability to compete with European peers.

Consob's annual report released on Monday showed that 199 large companies were listed at the end of 2025, down from 239 in 2019 and about 300 in 2005. No companies went public on the main market last year, while 11 were delisted.

As Consob chief, Stazi will have to oversee the regulator's conclusions on whether a hidden shareholder pact to gain control of insurance company Generali was behind the MPS acquisition of Mediobanca.

The Treasury holds a 4.9% stake in MPS, while Mediobanca has historically been Generali's main shareholder.

Prosecutors in Milan are probing whether MPS CEO Luigi Lovaglio acted in coordination with the bank's two major investors, while keeping authorities and investors in the dark.

Consob had ruled out the existence of such a pact in a report it finalised in September. However, the authority said it was reviewing further information it had received from the prosecutors after completing its initial report.

($1 = 0.8782 euros)

(Additional reporting by Giancarlo Navach in Milan; Editing by Keith Weir and Alvise Armellini)