Italian financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore reported on Saturday that Edizione was considering raising its stake to as much as 5 percent, but that no final decision had been taken.

Buying 3 percent of Generali would cost around 740 million euros (£648.42 million) at current market prices.

(Reporting by Elisa Anzolin, Gianluca Semeraro; writing by Maria Pia Quaglia)