Consob deems it useful to allow all listed companies, not just small and medium-sized enterprises, to set a mandatory takeover bid threshold of between 20 and 40% in the statute. This was stated by the president of the authority, Giuseppe Vegas, during a hearing in the Senate.
Changing the takeover bid threshold "would be coherent and useful in many cases for other companies", says Vegas speaking of the decree on corporate competitiveness. The Consolidated Law on Finance (Tuf) obliges to launch a public purchase offer (OPA) aimed at all shareholders whoever exceeds 30% of the capital.
The decree allows the takeover bid threshold to be modified only for companies with "a turnover of up to 300 million euros, or an average market capitalization in the last calendar year of less than 500 million euros". In fact, Vegas supports the proposal formulated at the time by the chairman of the Palazzo Madama Industry Commission, Massimo Mucchetti, which originally aimed to hinder Telefonica's takeover of Telecom Italia.
