Credit: REUTERS/Alessandro BianchiMILAN, July 17 (Reuters) - A UBI Banca UBI.MI shareholder group holding 8% of the Italian bank will tender its shares in the takeover bid launched by Intesa Sanpaolo ISP.MI for its smaller rival, the group's Chairman Franco Polotti told a local newspaper.
Intesa Sanpaolo announced in mid-February an all-paper exchange offer for UBI to create the euro zone's seventh-largest banking group, just before the novel coronavirus led to lockdowns in Italy.
Unlike other two local shareholder groups which had rejected the offer, the group headed by Polotti had not unveiled its intention and the move would be a push for Intesa.
No-one from the Polotti shareholder group was immediately available to confirm the report in the Lombardy newspaper Il Giornale di Brescia.
(Reporting by Andrea Mandalà; editing by Giselda Vagnoni and Barbara Lewis)
((andrea.mandala@thomsonreuters.com; +390266129436;))
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