Credit Agricole in December lifted its stake in Italy's third-biggest lender, Banco BPM SpA, to about 15% after rival UniCredit SpA made an unsolicited takeover bid for the firm. Credit Agricole has commercial agreements with both lenders, and an acquisition of Banco BPM by UniCredit would raise questions about them. The Italian operations generated over (Euro)1.2 billion ($1.2 billion) in profit last year, Grivet said in the interview to highlight the importance of Credit Agricole's biggest market outside France. That's "close to 15% or 16%" of the lender's total net income, he said. Grivet speaks to Kriti Gupta, Guy Johnson and Lizzy Burden on 'Bloomberg: The Opening Trade'.
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