Banker apologizes after punch threat on live TV

Rothschild Managing Director Chicco Testa apologized after threatening to punch a fellow guest who accused him of a conflict of interest on a live television show.

Testa, who led a campaign against nuclear power in Italy after the Chernobyl accident, was accused by geologist Mario Tozzi of standing to profit from plans to build nuclear plants on “Let’s Start Well,” an Italian morning talk show on state- run television broadcast on May 11.

“Don’t you dare say that I profit from this, because I will smash your face in,” the 58-year-old banker said.

Testa said today his reaction “wasn’t justified” and the threat was “metaphorical,” in a statement posted on his blog. Tozzi’s claim is untrue, he wrote. Even if Tozzi were right, Testa wrote that he doesn’t see “where the problem would be.”

The banker, who is also chairman of hydroelectric plant maker EVA-Energie Valsabbia, has changed his stance on nuclear power in recent years, saying it will help address growing energy demand and limit greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming. Italy will start work on its first new nuclear plant by 2013 after the Senate last year approved an end to a 22-year-long ban.

Testa, reached on his mobile phone, declined to comment further today. A spokesman for Rothschild in London declined to comment. Tozzi wasn’t immediately available.

Testa wrote “Tornare al Nucleare?” or “Return to Nuclear Power?” in 2008, a book in which he argued in favor of building nuclear power plants. As one of the founding members and head of environmental group Legambiente in the 1980s, he helped lead a campaign against the industry. Italians voted to halt construction of nuclear plants in 1987.

Testa, a former chairman of state-controlled utility Enel SpA and of Rome power provider Acea, joined Rothschild, the 200- year-old investment bank, in 2003 when the London-based firm bought the advisory business of Franco Bernabe & Co.