Italy - Factors to watch on March 21

The following factors could affect Italian markets on Friday.

Reuters has not verified the newspaper reports, and cannot vouch for their accuracy. New items are marked with (*).

For a complete list of diary events in Italy please click on IT/DIA.

ECONOMY

Bank of Italy releases January data on foreign investors holdings of Italian government bonds.

DEBT

Treasury announces sale of BTP Short and BTPei bonds, with relative amounts to be auctioned on March 26.

COMPANIES

(*) BANCA MONTE DEI PASCHI (MPS) BMPS.MI, GENERALI GASI.MI

Italian tycoon Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone has secured a 500 million euro financing line from Intesa Sanpaolo ISP.MI to boost his stake in the Tuscan bank and in the insurer, ahead of their forthcoming annual general meetings (AGMs), MF reported on Friday. The daily added that Caltagirone provided shares of the two companies as collateral for the financing.

BANCA MONTE DEI PASCHI (MPS) BMPS.MI

The Italian lender expects to receive all the relevant approvals to launch its takeover offer for Mediobanca MDBI.MI by the end of June, Chief Executive Luigi Lovaglio said on Thursday.

UNICREDIT CRDI.MI

Italy's second-largest bank said on Thursday that it had received the non-objection letter from Ireland's central bank to acquire a controlling stake in the insurer BBPM LIFE DAC, a unit of Banco BPM BAMI.MI for which UniCredit made a bid.

(*) PIRELLI PIRC.MI

The board of the tyre manufacturer will meet on March 26 to discuss the potential impact of a new U.S. data protection law on the company, given its largest shareholder is China's Sinochem, Il Sole 24 Ore reported on Friday.

(*) AZIMUT HOLDING AZMT.MI

The asset manager is in talks to buy small lender Banca di Sconto from local bank IBL, MF reported on Friday. This move would provide Azimut with a banking license for its upcoming fintech bank, the daily added.

(*) TELECOM ITALIA TLIT.MI

The partnership between the phone group's Brazilian unit TIM SA TIMS3.SA and C6 Group has terminated, as well as all related disputes, with the extinction of the four ongoing arbitration proceedings, TIM SA said on Thursday.

(*) MFE-MEDIAFOREUROPE MFEB.MI

German media group ProSiebenSat.1 PSMGn.DE, in which MFE is the biggest shareholder, said on Thursday it has approved an agreement with U.S. private equity firm General Atlantic on the acquisition of the U.S. firm's minority stakes in dating platform ParshipMeet and internet holding NuCom Group.

The deal is expected to pave the way to the sale of ProSieben digital assets, including e-commerce portal Verivox to Italy's Moltiply Group MOL.MI.

(*) M&A, VERSACE

A deal between luxury fashion group Prada 1913.HK and New York based Capri Holdings CPRI.N over the sale of Versace brand is likely to be announced in the first week of April, Il Sole 24 Ore reported on Friday adding that exclusive talks between the two companies are set to expire on April 10. Intesa Sanpaolo and BNP Paribas' BNL BNPP.PA are among the banks which are expected to finance the deal, the report added according to Il Sole 24 Ore.

INTERPUMP GROUP ITPG.MI

Releases FY results (Q4 results released on Feb. 14).

DIARY

Rome, conference "Water: care for the resource and universal access" (0900 GMT); expected attendees include Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, Environment and Energy Security Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Vice Director General; videomessage from U.N. Special Envoy for Water Retno Marsudi and EU Commissioner for Environment, Water Resilience and circular and Competitive Economy Jessika Roswall.

((Milan newsroom, e-mail: reutersitaly@thomsonreuters.com))

For Italian market data and news, click on codes in
brackets:

20 biggest gainers (in percentage).............PG.MI

20 biggest losers (in percentage)..............PL.MI

FTSE IT allshare index .FTITLMS

FTSE Mib index........ .FTMIB

FTSE Allstars index... .FTSTAR

FTSE Mid Cap index.... .FTITMC

Block trades.......... .BLK.MI

Stories on Italy...... IT-LEN

For pan-European market data and news, click on codes in
brackets:

European Equities speed guide...................EUR/EQUITY

FTSEurofirst 300 index...............................FTEU3

DJ STOXX index.......................................STOXX

Top 10 STOXX sectors............................PGL.STOXXS

Top 10 EUROSTOXX sectors.......................PGL.STOXXES

Top 10 Eurofirst 300 sectors....................PGL.FTEU3S

Top 25 European pct gainers........................PG.PEUR

Top 25 European pct losers.........................PL.PEUR

Main stock markets:

Dow Jones................DJI Wall Street report ......N

Nikkei 225..............N225 Tokyo report.............T

FTSE 100................FTSE London report............L

Xetra DAX..............GDAXI Frankfurt market stories.F

CAC-40..................FCHI Paris market stories....PA

World Indices.....................................0#.INDEX

Reuters survey of world bourse outlook.........EQUITYPOLL1

Western European IPO diary..........................WEUIPO

European Asset Allocation........................EUR/ASSET

Reuters News at a Glance: Equities...............TOP/EQE

Main currency report:...............................FRX/