Small is beautiful for Italy's tax amnesty

MILAN, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Smaller institutions appear to have benefited more from funds being repatriated under Italy's tax amnesty than larger ones, with Italy's four biggest banks collecting less than a quarter of the estimated total.

And a final rush suggests the government's decision to extend the amnesty with slightly tighter terms beyond April could bring in more than the 80 billion euros ($115 billion) which Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti was expecting.

"There was a bottleneck at the end. That could mean the extension will open up more chances," a sector source said.

LDK, SunPower Up on Italy Deals

XINYU CITY, China and SUNNYVALE, Calif. (TheStreet) -- LDK Solar(LDK Quote) was up in pre-market trading by more than 2%, after it announced overnight that it had lined up a deal with Uni Land, an Italian real-estate banking and development company, to construct photovoltaic plants totaling 20 megawatts (MW) in 2010 and 2011LDK Solar will oversee engineering, procurement and construction of the plants and will also supply the solar modules. Uni Land will finance the PV project operations.

Italy's Coin To Buy Upim In Retail Tie-Up - Source

MILAN (Dow Jones)--Gruppo Coin SpA (GCN.MI) has agreed to buy smaller competitor Upim, a deal that would create Italy's biggest department store chain, a source familiar with the agreement said Thursday.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the person confirmed newspaper reports published earlier in the day that valued the deal at more than EUR1 billion.

Under the terms of the deal, Upim's shareholders--Investitori Associati, Deutsche Bank Real Estate Opportunities Group, Pirelli & Co. Real Estate SpA (PRS.MI) and Gruppo Borletti--and its creditors--Unicredit SpA (UCG.MI) and Natixis (KN.FR)--will get a 7.5% stake in Coin, according to one newspaper, La Repubblica.

Borgo di Vagli, Tuscany

Life at the Borgo

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Vatican bank accused of laundering money

In its latest issue published on Friday, the magazine claims prosecutors are probing transactions totalling 180 million euros handled between 2006 and 2008 by Vatican bank (IOR) accounts held at Unicredit’s branch near the Vatican in Rome’s Via della Conciliazione.

Some of the funds came from the sale and purchase of real estate, and the banking operations allegedly breaking money laundering laws. Prosecutors told the magazine that they would in the next few days to question Unicredit's senior management over the suspect operations.

Pirelli RE 9-mth loss widens, hikes savings goal

MILAN, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Italy's Pirelli & C Real Estate SpA (PCRE.MI) posted a wider nine-month net loss on Wednesday, as restructuring costs and writedowns weighed, and raised its savings target for 2009. The net loss widened to 57.9 million euros ($85.37 million) from 12.9 million euros a year earlier. That was less than two analysts' forecasts for a loss of 63 million euros and 70 million euros. Income fell 33 percent to 199 million euros, Pirelli RE, a unit of industrial group Pirelli & C SpA (PECI.MI), said.

Pirelli RE upped its full-year cost savings target to 65 million euros, from 50 million euros, after booking 47 million euros up to September.

It also reiterated its full-year forecast for earnings before interest and tax. At 1222 GMT, Pirelli RE shares were up 2.1 percent at 0.5350 euros, little changed after the results.