(Recasts to combine with story on press report about stakebuilding in Popolare di Sondrio, adds Orcel comments)

MILAN, Jan 18 (Reuters) - UniCredit Chief Executive Andrea Orcel on Thursday said his bank was not buying shares in Popolare di Sondrio, dismissing as "noise" a newspaper report about UniCredit being the lender behind stakebuilding in the smaller rival.

Daily Il Sole 24 Ore on Thursday reported that a U.S. investment bank had been building a 10% stake in Popolare di Sondrio to allow an Italian lender to become a significant shareholder, with UniCredit being the leading candidate.

"No, I'm not," Orcel told Bloomberg Television in an interview when asked if UniCredit was buying shares in Popolare di Sondrio.

A veteran investment banker whose strategy constantly draws speculation given UniCredit's large stash of excess capital, Orcel reiterated his stance about mergers and acquisitions potentially being a tool to accelerate growth at the right conditions.

"Every time I sit in an interview there is something. Yesterday it was Commerzbank, today Popolare di Sondrio... We're very disciplined in saying: is it strategic? And does it fit in terms of valuation," Orcel said.

"We know what is strategic, but valuations are misaligned. So there is a lot of intermediaries, and a lot of noise of people who try to create transactions but the numbers don't fit." (Reporting by Valentina Za, editing by Giulia Segreti and Bernadette Baum)