Last week Compart, a holding company, bid euro3.5 billion for the shares that it does not already own in Montedison, an Italian conglomerate.

ECONOMIST: Bidding for the future | The

Compart's backers, which include Mediobanca, an Italian investment bank, feared that if they did not tidy up Montedison's financial structure themselves, someone else would do it for them.

ECONOMIST: Bidding for the future | The