Italy - Factors to watch on January 19

The following factors could affect Italian markets on Monday.

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.

POLITICS

European Union ambassadors reached broad agreement on Sunday to intensify efforts to dissuade U.S. President Donald Trump from imposing tariffs on European allies, while also preparing retaliatory measures should the duties go ahead, EU diplomats said.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who is closer to the U.S. President than some other EU leaders, described the tariff threat on Sunday as "a mistake", adding she had spoken to Trump a few hours earlier and told him what she thought.

ECONOMY

The Italian economy probably saw modest expansion in the fourth quarter of last year, the Bank of Italy said on Friday, confirming its full-year forecasts for 2025 and 2026 gross domestic product growth of 0.5% and 0.7% respectively, in line with the government's latest estimates.

(*) South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni agreed on Monday to expand cooperation in sectors such as artificial intelligence, aerospace, chips and critical minerals, according to the Blue House.

COMPANIES

BANCA MONTE DEI PASCHI DI SIENA BMPS.MI

Gruppo Caltagirone, a major investor in the Tuscan bank, said on Friday speculation about a clash with the Italian bank's CEO Luigi Lovaglio was misplaced, adding the board was merely having discussions over the bank's strategy and governance.

MONTE DEI PASCHI, MEDIOBANCA MDBI.MI

Monte dei Paschi's top managers and consultants from Deloitte and McKinsey met in Rome over the weekend to discuss the future strategy for the Siena-based bank and for Mediobanca, according to several Italian newspapers. One of the issues under consideration was the possibility of keeping the Milanese bank listed, as an alternative to the de-listing and merger plan.

UNICREDIT CRDI.MI, GENERALI GASI.MI, MPS BMPS.MI

Five of Leonardo Del Vecchio's heirs, out of a total of eight, are pressing Delfin's board to sell the family holding company's financial stakes, La Repubblica reported on Saturday. These include 2.7% of UniCredit, 17.8% of Monte dei Paschi, 10% of Generali and 23% of the French company Covivio CVO.PA.

(*) BANCA GENERALI BGN.MI

Kepler Cheuvreux said on Monday it had cut the private bank to 'hold' from 'buy' and raised its target price to 60 euros per share from 59 euros per share.

LEONARDO LDOF.MI

The group's U.S. subsidiary DRS wants to join the country's Golden Dome , CEO Roberto Cingolani told Milano Finanza in an interview published on Saturday. He added that in its upcoming industrial plan the defense and aerospace group would continue to focus on offering products and services for hybrid warfare.

Indonesian authorities said on Sunday they had located the wreckage of a fisheries surveillance plane that went missing in the South Sulawesi province on the slope of a fog-covered mountain and had recovered the body of one of the 10 people on board. The aircraft is a regional turboprop ATR 42-500 manufactured by Franco-Italian planemaker ATR AIR.PA.

(*) ITALGAS IG.MI

Deutsche Bank said on Monday it had cut the gas distributor to 'hold' from 'buy', and raised the target price to 10.30 euros from 10 euros.

(*) FERRETTI YACHT.MI

Czech investment group KKCG on Monday said it launched a partial voluntary offer to double its stake in Italian yacht maker Ferretti to 29.5%, valuing the firm at 1.18 billion euros ($1.37 billion), according to Reuters calculations.

IPO

Italian tech company Bending Spoons is interviewing banks to lead a potential IPO in the United States likely to take place later this year or early next year, a person involved in the process told IFR on Friday. Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan are among the banks that have pitched for the business, IFR reported.

Contacted by Reuters, Bending Spoons CEO Luca Ferrari declined to comment on the report.

Bending Spoons could list 30–35% of the company in a transaction to be carried out in the first quarter of 2027, Il Messaggero reported on Saturday.

DIARY

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni meets South Korea President Lee Jae Myung and ends her visit to South Korea.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expected to attend World Economic Forum in Davos.

Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti attends Eurogroup meeting in Brussels.

Rome, RESTART event "Shaping Horizons in Future Telecommunications" starts (1330 GMT); ends on January 21. On Monday expected attendees include EU Commission Executive Vice President Henna Virkkunen, Open Fiber CEO Giuseppe Gola; Telecom Italia (TIM) TLIT.MI CEO Pietro Labriola, INWIT INWT.MI General Director Diego Galli.

Milan, University holds inauguration ceremony "SHIELD – Strategic Hub for Integrated Education on Leadership & Defense" (1000 GMT); Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani delivers closing address.

((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

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

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

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

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

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