The owner of IT company Vitrociset, which does business Italy's strategic defence sector, must consult the government before selling it, defence minister Roberta Pinotti said on Monday.
"The government has the golden power and it is an instrument we can use as we did in the case of Piaggio," Pinotti said in Brussels on Monday.
The Italian government must verify and approve and change of ownership of Vitrociset because it operates in a strategic sector for Italy's national interest, Pinotti stated.
"Vitrociset has important links not only to the ministry of defence but also to the interior ministry, and handles sensitive data," she said.
Besides examining related strategic issues, the Italian state must also check "the kind of ownership involved" before such a company can change hands, Pinotti noted.
Vitrociset, which is owned by Edoarda Crociani, has signed an accord to sell the company to businessman Antonio Di Murro, journalist Gianni Dragoni wrote on his blog.
The company is a client of Appleby, the Bermuda-based legal firm at the centre of millions of leaked documents given the name of the Paradise Papers that earlier in November revealed how the global elite sheltered trillions of dollars in offshore tax havens.
