Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi on Thursday said that he backs an extension of state protection for Italian businesses after revealing that his government recently blocked a Chinese takeover of a semiconductor company.
Draghi told reporters in Rome that he supports an earlier call by Italian Minister of Economic Development Giancarlo Giorgetti for the country’s so-called Golden Powers rules to be extended to the automotive and steel sectors.
The rules “must be used when necessary,” Draghi said. “There was a case recently in which the government decided — an Italian semiconductor company which was to be acquired by a Chinese company. It was blocked.”
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Draghi did not name the firms involved.
EU officials, pressed into a new phase of big government by the COVID-19 pandemic, have been scrambling to protect prized assets after the worst stock-market rout in nearly a decade left companies vulnerable to takeovers.
Berlin, Paris, Rome and Madrid have all beefed up their powers to veto investment from outside the EU.
Giorgetti earlier said that the administration is considering extending the rules, which involve state measures to block or manage foreign ownership in businesses deemed strategic.
The recent decision to block a takeover was “common sense,” Draghi said. “The lack of semiconductors forced many auto production companies to slow production last year, so it has become a strategic sector and there are others like it.”
Matteo Salvini — leader of the Lega Nord party, which backs Draghi’s government — last month called for the government to protect truck and bus business Iveco SpA as a strategic asset, saying that it would be a national disaster if the company were sold to China FAW Group (一汽集團).
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