ABN Amro is interested in making smaller acquisitions in Italy as it pushes its unit Antonveneta towards growth targets, it said today.
"We have made it clear that we are interested in bolt-on acquisitions," Huibert Boumeester, ABN's managing board member responsible for Italy and mergers and acquisitions said.
Asked what acquisitions ABN and Antonveneta would be willing to consider, Mr Boumeester said: "If in a certain marketplace we can acquire 10, 20, 30 bank branches or acquire a client portfolio, that is what we mean by bolt-on acquisitions."
ABN, which also owns about 8.6 per cent of Italian bank Capitalia, said it spent €139 million on restructuring related to the acquisition of Antonveneta - less than the €200 million it had anticipated.
Profit at Antonveneta in 2007 is targeted at about €500 million, compared with €400 million this year.