ITALY will include disclosure obligations for company takeovers in a draft competition law currently being examined by parliament, Industry Minister Carlo Calenda said Friday.

    Calenda said the rule would apply to any bids to buy 5 percent or more of a listed company, and would be based on those currently in place in France and the United States.

    “It will mean that when you buy 5 percent in a listed company, you have to say why you are doing it,” he said at a forum in Rome, adding he hoped the new law would be approved by April.

    Rome is concerned about the vulnerability of its companies to foreign takeovers, but Calenda said the new rules were not aimed specifically at recent stake-building in broadcaster Mediaset by French tycoon Vincent Bollore’s group Vivendi.

    (SD-Agencies)