Italy To Nationalize Monte Paschi After Private Sector Rescue Fails
Update: the FT writes that the Italian govt set to take a stake between 50% and 70% in Monte dei Paschi, up from the current 4% stake, as part of the government’s third bailout in as many years. As the FT adds, “the government rescue, which had long been resisted in Rome, is designed to draw a line under the slow-burn crisis in Italian banking that has alarmed investors and become the main source of concern for European financial regulators.”
It remains to be seen if Germany, long a critic of state bailouts, will be as agreeable.
Meanwhile, Pier Carlo Padoan, the Italin finmin, insisted that apart from a few “critical” situations, Italy’s banking system was “solid and healthy”. He vowed to “minimise, if not erase” any impact of the public intervention on the savings of ordinary citizens.
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The third bailout, and re-nationalization, of Italy’s third largest banks is imminent following a Reuters report that the ongoing, JPM-led attempt to execute a complex private sector bailout of Monte Paschi has failed.
According to Reuters, Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, long considered as the most likely anchor investor with a €1 billion allocation in any rescue plan cash call, decided it is unwilling to invest in the Italian bank, meanwhile Monte Paschi has been unable to find a replacement investor willing to put money in its privately funded rescue plan, less than 24 hours before the offer ends.
As a result, the bank entire share sale, which closes at 2 p.m. (1300 GMT) on Thursday, has drawn very little interest from the wider investment community.
As laid out previously, the bank needs to raise €5 billion by the end of this month to avert being wound down. The Italian government, which earlier today got a greenlight to issue €20 billion in public debt to use for bank bailout purposes, is expected to step in this week and nationalize the bank.
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