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
    Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte faces a showdown with
his coalition partner and former premier Matteo Renzi this week
that could bring down his government even as it struggles to
contain the COVID-19 pandemic.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2JE07V
    ...
    
    ECONOMY
    IHS Markit releases December PMI manufacturing (0845 GMT).
    Transport Ministry releases December car sales data (1700
GMT).
    December state sector borrowing requirement data.
    
    COMPANIES
    Bourse After Hours market closed.
    
    FIAT CHRYSLER  FCHA.MI ; EXOR  EXOR.MI 
    Shareholders in both Fiat Chrysler and France's PSA on
Monday are scheduled to vote on their plans to merge the two
groups to create Stellantis, the world's fourth largest
carmaker. (1330 GMT).  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2IW0TQ
    Daily Corriere della Sera said on Saturday that the merger
could be finalised by as early as the end of January.
    
    FINCANTIERI  FCT.MI 
    France has offered Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri a
one-month extension to its planned acquisition of French rival
Chantiers de l'Atlantique, the finance ministry said in a
statement sent to Reuters on Wednesday.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2JA1VU
    
    A2A  A2.MI 
    Marco Patuano, the chairman of Italy's biggest regional
utility, appeared to dismiss the idea of creating a large
northern utility through mergers of the main regional players
like Iren and Hera, telling Il Sole 24 Ore on Saturday that any
such mergers would need to generate value for the companies and
stakeholders, create synergies and increase know-how. "That’s
why it doesn't seem to me particularly to be a propitious moment
to talk about it." He also said his group was not presently
interested in investing in fast broadband group FiberCop led by
Telecom Italia. 
    
    ATLANTIA  ATL.MI 
    Atlantia said on Wednesday its subsidiary Abertis
Infraestructuras, in consortium with Manulife Investment
Management, had wrapped up the acquisition of the company
holding the concession to 2070 of the Elizabeth River Crossings
tunnels in Virginia for about 1 billion euros. 
    
    UNICREDIT  CRDI.MI 
    Yanez securitisation vehicle issued notes for 908 million
euros under UniCredit's Sandokan 2 project.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nS8N2IX00I 
    
    BPER BANCA  EMII.MI 
    BPER said on Wednesday it had sold a bad loans portfolio
with a gross book value of 270.8 million euros. Sale was through
securitisation with GACS state guarantee.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nFWN2J90B0
    
    BANCO BPM  BAMI.MI 
    Giorgio Girondi, a shareholder with 4.9% of Banco BPM, is
promoting an agreement involving shareholders Sandro Veronesi
and Dario Tommasi that would secure a joint 7.5% stake of the
bank with the possibility of rising to 9.9% due to Girondi's aim
of increasing his share, daily newspaper il Messaggero reported
on Thursday.
    
    CATTOLICA ASSICURAZIONI  CASS.MI 
    The insurer said on Wednesday after buying remaining shares
subject to the exercise of withdrawal rights in a deal relating
to the group's transformation into a joint-stock company, it
held 12.3% of the company's share capital.
    The company's 2020 results will probably show its highest
operating profit ever, at the top end of the range indicated of
between 350 and 375 million euros, CEO Carlo Ferraresi said in
an interview with daily La Stampa on Thursday. He added that
Cattolica aims to resume distributing a dividend although this
depends on the go-ahead of Italian and European regulators.
    Ferraresi said Cattolica was ready to start talks with Banco
BPM over a mooted joint venture. Banco BPM called for a change
of control clause after Italy's biggest insurer Generali
 GASI.MI  in June agreed to buy 24.4% of Cattolica to become its
single largest investor. Ferraresi said there was no reason to
call for a change of control.
    
    ASSICURAZIONI GENERALI  GASI.MI  
    Generali has signed an agreement for the acquisition of all
of the shares currently owned by AXA Group in its Greek
subsidiary AXA Insurance S.A. ("AXA Greece") for 165 million
euro, the insurer said in a statement on Thursday. In addition,
Generali has renegotiated the distribution agreement currently
in place between AXA Greece and Alpha Bank expiring in March
2027 by extending it for twenty years from the closing of the
acquisition.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nFWN2JA092
    
    SARAS  SRS.MI 
    Saras said on Thursday the integrated gasification combined
cycle plant of Sarlux had been included by the energy regulator
among the "essential plants" to the safety of the Italian
electricity system for the year 2021.
        
    EDISON  EDNn.MI 
    Italy's Edison said on Wednesday it had sold its exploration
and production assets in Norway to Norwegian oil and gas group
Sval Energi as part of its strategy to focus on clean energy.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2JA3GB
    
    MARKETS
    British financial intermediaries can keep on operating in
Italy until the end of June as they await authorisation to do
business in the country as non-European Union companies, Italy's
banking and bourse authorities said on Saturday.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2JD09
    
    DIARY
    ...
    
    ((Milan newsroom, +39 02 6612 9507, fax +39 02 801149, 
milan.newsroom@news.reuters.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 
  Xetra DAX............. .GDAXI   Frankfurt market stories .F 
  CAC-40................. .FCHI   Paris market stories... .PA 
  World Indices..................................... 0#.INDEX 
  Reuters survey of world bourse outlook......... EQUITYPOLL1 
  Western European IPO diary.......................... WEUIPO 
  European Asset Allocation........................ EUR/ASSET 
  Reuters News at a Glance: Equities............... TOP/EQE 
  Main currency report:............................... FRX/