STOCKS NEWS EUROPE-Italy's RCS gains on Mediobanca upgrade

RCS MediaGroup (RCSM.MI), publisher of Italy's biggest selling newspaper Corriere della Sera, rise more than 15 percent as Mediobanca upgrades the stock in the wake of a cost restructuring plan announced last week.

"The approved recovery plan represents a radical change in the shareholders' approach to the company," Mediobanca analyst Fabio Pavan says in a note, raising his rating to "outperform" from "neutral" and price target to 1.65 euros from 0.93 euros.

By 0830 GMT, the shares rise 16.6 percent to 0.94 euros, just below the 1 euro threshold last seen more than four months ago.

RCS is controlled by Italy's largest financial and industrial groups, including investment bank Mediobanca (MDBI.MI) and carmaker Fiat (FIA.MI).

The company came out with long-awaited measures to cut costs by more than 200 million euros on Thursday as an advertising slump pushed the Italian publisher into a first-quarter loss. [ID:nLE511893]

Journalists at the Corriere della Sera plan a six-day strike over the package, which reportedly includes 90 job losses.

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