The Italian government has passed a new law that could allow Parmalat to postpone its AGM, potentially giving critics of Lactalis’s investment in the Italian dairy giant more time to consider their options.

Italy’s Ministry for Economic Development confirmed to just-food this afternoon (23 March) that Rome has given Italian companies the power to postpone shareholder meetings up to 180 days after the end of their financial year.

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The law could mean Italian opponents of Lactalis’s investment in Parmalat have longer to weigh up their response.

The French dairy company’s acquisition of a 29% stake in Parmalat has led Italian politicians and businesses to express a desire to keep the company in Italian hands.

Lactalis’s stake is just short of the 30% threshold that would trigger a mandatory offer for the entire share capital of Parmalat, although the President cheese maker has said it has no intention of tabling an offer for the whole business.

However, at Parmalat’s AGM, due on 14 April, Lactalis, now the company’s biggest shareholder, will put a slate of board nominees up for election, possibly handing it a significant amount of control of the Italian firm’s strategy.

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Paolo Romani, Italy’s minister for economic development, said today that the new law gave the Italian government time to see if it could adopt further rules to defend Parmalat.

A spokesperson for Parmalat said the company had yet to decide whether to push back its AGM. “I’m not sure that we will take advantage [of the new law],” she said.

Some Italian food producers have expressed interest in Parmalat. Chocolate maker Ferrero has said it is looking with “interest and sympathy at an industrial Italian solution”.

A spokesperson for Granarolo told just-food that the Italian dairy manufacturer was interested in Parmalat’s domestic business and would be willing to participate in any consortium that wanted to keep its larger rival in Italian hands. However, the spokesperson confirmed comments made by Granarolo chairman Gianpiero Calzolari that the company did not have the financial resources to buy Parmalat by itself.

Amid the speculation over Parmalat’s future, Romani, meanwhile, said the Italian government had also met with leading food producers to try to form an alliance that would see manufacturers and banks come together to build a domestic food maker capable of competing internationally.