Pop Milano needs to be in high end Italian banking-chmn

MILAN, April 19 (Reuters) - Banca Popolare di Milano needs to position itself in the high end of Italy's banking sector using its assets to be seen as a possible strategic partner and not a takeover target, Chairman Roberto Mazzotta said.

Mazzotta was speaking at a shareholder meeting on Saturday, where a shareholders' association added its voice to criticism of corporate governance at the cooperative bank.

"Pop Milano is a healthy, profitable bank with assets. It is ready to become a desired partner and not an acquisition," Mazzotta said. He said Pop Milano's (PMII.MI: Quote, Profile, Research) aim was "to be part of the high end of the Italian banking system."

The lender late last year singled out France's Credit Mutuel for partnership talks after being courted by an insurer and another cooperative bank.

Mazzotta told an Italian newspaper on Friday the bank needed to speed up partnerships in asset management, corporate and investment banking and Internet banking.

At the meeting, shareholders' association BPM 360 Degrees, created by activist fund Amber which has a 2.16 percent stake in Pop Milano and which openly criticised its governance structure last year, called for equality among shareholder groups.

"The impression one has of Banca Popolare di Milano today is one of total closure," Carla Vidra, financial director of BPM 360 Degrees said.

"It is not acceptable that there are group A and group B shareholders. All should be equal."

Amber openly criticised Pop Milano's governance structure in August after the bank's board, under pressure from unions, made a U-turn on a nearly-agreed merger with peer Banca Popolare dell' Emilia Romagna (EMII.MI: Quote, Profile, Research).