UniCredit Chairman Dieter Rampl said on Saturday the European banking giant was not interested in any acquisitions in the United States. His comment comes a day after Italy's leading business daily said UniCredit might be interested in buying the $47 billion US investment bank Merrill Lynch a report "categorically" denied by Unicredit on Friday.
"Absolutely not", Rampl told reporters on the sidelines of a financial conference in Bari, southern Italy, when asked if it would make sense for the group to look at the United States for potential acquisitions given the dollar's weakness against euro.
Italy's business daily Il Sole 24 Ore said on Friday UniCredit CEO Alessandro Profumo could see this as the right time for a deal, given the weak dollar and falls in Merrill Lynch's share price. Rampl reiterated a denial of interest in Merrill Lynch.
"How can you dream about Merrill?" he said. On Friday, investors and analysts were sceptical about UniCredit's interest in Merrill, given the Italian bank was still digesting Capitalia - the Italian lender it bought last year which propelled it into Europe's top banks and pushed its market value to around 74 billion euros ($108.5 billion).