UniCredit SpA's (UCG.MI) main shareholders met Thursday to agree a proposed successor to Dieter Rampl as chairman of Italy's banking giant, with two leading newspapers identifying two preferred candidates including a former chairman of Eni SpA (ENI.MI).

Representatives of a group of non-profit foundations that together hold a stake of more than 10% met at UniCredit's head offices in Milan in the first of a series of meetings at the end of which they are expected to choose a candidate.

"We have to close today," Andrea Landi, chairman of foundation Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena, told reporters as he headed to the meeting, according to MF-Dow Jones.

"We're all optimistic [about reaching an agreement]," said Massimo Paniccia, chairman of another foundation called Fondazione CRTrieste.

The foundations will later consult with a number of private investors who also have significant stakes in the bank, according to local news reports.

The foundations are under pressure to come up with a name because the deadline for shareholders to submit their respective lists of proposed candidates for the board is April 16.

Given the sway held by the foundations over the bank, their candidate is more than likely to become the next chairman.

UniCredit's board will meet April 19 to review the lists before putting them to a vote at the annual shareholders' meeting on May 11.

The board will also receive Rampl's formal resignation. Rampl announced in February his decision not to run for another term as chairman.

The two likeliest candidates to replace him include Giuseppe Vita, chairman of Allianz SE's (ALV.XE) Italia unit, and Gian Maria Gros-Pietro, who has held a number of high-profile jobs including chairman of Eni, Italy's oil giant, according to reports in newspapers Il Sole 24 Ore and Corriere della Sera.

Rampl will keep representing the bank on the board of Mediobanca (MB.MI), a smaller Italian bank in which UniCredit has a stake. He joined the bank when UniCredit took over Germany's HVB in 2005. Rampl had signaled a desire to change the make-up of the bank's board, including a reduction in the number of members to below 20.

Newspaper website: www.ilsole24ore.com

Newspaper website: www.corriere.it

-By Gilles Castonguay, Dow Jones Newswires; +39 02 5821 9908; gilles.castonguay@dowjones.com; Twitter: @GRCastonguay

(Alberto Chimenti of MF-Dow Jones contributed to this article.)

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