Italy rules out taking a stake in Stellantis - minister

By Giuseppe Fonte and Federico Maccioni

ROME (Reuters) - The Italian government has no plans to take a stake in Franco-Italian automaker Stellantis, Industry Minister Adolfo Urso said on Thursday.

"I think we can't go back in time, it is not feasible today," he said at an event in Rome.

As an opposition politician, Urso had in the past called for state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP) to buy a stake in Stellantis, whose brands include Fiat and Peugeot.

Last year, the COPASIR parliamentary committee on intelligence, which Urso chaired before serving as minister, recommended the move to "protect national interests in the automotive industry".

"The possible entry (of CDP) into the industrial group could favour a rebalancing of weights between the French and Italian components, thus protecting technologies and employment (in Italy)", a COPASIR report said.

The French government, a former investor in Peugeot maker PSA which in 2021 merged with Fiat Chrysler to form Stellantis, remains a shareholder with a stake of around 6%.

In June, Stellantis Chairman John Elkann said his company did not need to add the Italian state to its list of shareholders, as he responded to calls to this end from Italian automotive lobby ANFIA.

Speaking on Thursday, Urso said that the government hopes to strike a deal with Stellantis in the coming weeks to boost the carmaker's production in Italy, part of a long-term plan to support the national automotive sector also involving other players.

Rome is pushing for Stellantis, Italy's sole major automaker, to bring its annual production in the country back to one million units - but it is unclear whether this refers to passenger cars only, or vans too.

Last year, Stellantis produced 686,000 vehicles in Italy, comprising 480,000 passenger cars and 206,000 vans.

Stellantis normally refers to the goal of scaling up Italian production to one million vehicles, including vans, while Urso repeatedly spoke about one million cars.

(Reporting by Giuseppe Fonte and Giselda Vagnoni, writing by Federico Maccioni, editing by Alvise Armellini/Keith Weir)