UPDATE 3-Intesa could miss REIT status for property fund

(Releads after statement from Intesa Sanpaolo unit)

MILAN, April 4 (Reuters) - Italian bank Intesa Sanpaolo (ISP.MI) said on Friday it plans to list its $1.5 billion IMMIT property fund this year, implicitly confirming it might miss a deadline to benefit from real estate investment trust status.

IMMIT "confirms its aim to obtain a listing ... in 2008," the bank said. Intesa Sanpaolo had planned to list the fund, which has about 1 billion euros of assets, by April 30.

Earlier, industry sources had said the listing could be postponed beyond the end-April deadline for benefiting this tax year from the special status of being listed as a real estate investment trust (REIT).

The sources had cited turbulence in financial markets.

Asked before the statement was issued about a possible delay in the listing, Intesa SanPaolo Chief Executive Corrado Passera had declined to comment.

Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy's biggest retail bank, said IMMIT held 285 buildings totaling 471,500 square metres (5,075,226 square feet).

Many of them are used by retail bank branches, most in central Rome and Milan.

SIIQs, the Italian version of REITs, are an innovation in the country and have tax advantages for investors.

They are well-established in the United States and Asia and were once viewed as low-volatility securities based on assets.

But the U.S. subprime crisis over lending based on property has raised doubts among investors about property investments.

Italy has largely been unscathed by subprime worries, however, as its lenders have low exposure to the kind of borrowers that took out subprime loans. (Reporting by Claudia Cristoferi; additional reporting by Valentina Za; editing by Erica Billingham and Ted Kerr)