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Financial Times says EU examining Italy's sale of MPS

stake

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Akros says it conducted placement 'properly and

transparently'

(Adds details and Akros quotes)

MILAN, June 24 (Reuters) - Italy's Banca Akros, the

investment bank of Banco BPM, said on Tuesday that no

large investors were shut out of the placement it handled in

November of a 15% stake in Monte dei Paschi (MPS) on

behalf of the Rome government.

The Financial Times reported on Tuesday that the European

Commission was examining the Italian government's sale of shares

in MPS, following claims that large investors, including Italy's

second-biggest bank UniCredit, Norway's oil fund and

BlackRock ( BLK ), were kept out of the bidding process.

"No large investors were shut out of the bidding process as

written in the article, including UniCredit, Norway's oil fund

and BlackRock ( BLK )", Banca Akros said in a statement.

In November, Italy's Treasury sold MPS stakes to Italy's

third-largest bank Banco BPM, fund manager Anima Holding

, construction tycoon Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone and

the holding company of the late billionaire Leonardo Del

Vecchio, through an accelerated book-building (ABB) procedure

handled by Akros.

UniCredit CEO Andrea Orcel told Italian daily la Repubblica

last week that the bank tried to take part in the sale, "but we

could not manage (it)". UniCredit had reported to market

regulator Consob suspected anomalies in the sale, he added.

Akros said that UniCredit did not place any order to acquire

a stake in MPS "in the context of the ABB procedure".

"The placement was conducted by Banca Akros properly and

transparently, in compliance with the rules and practices

governing such operations: all orders were collected, recorded,

and processed in the same manner and no correctly submitted

order to buy was ignored," the investment bank said in the

statement.

Milan state prosecutors are looking into the government's

sale of the stake in MPS and earlier in the month fetched

documents relating to the transaction from the offices of Banca

Akros.