UniCredit in bid to rebuild after clean-up

Milan — UniCredit began Italy’s biggest corporate share sale on Monday in an attempt to raise €13bn to rebuild the bank’s capital after a balance sheet clean-up. Banks in Italy have been struggling to deal with bad loans left by a deep recession, leading to a series of capital raisings and consolidation in the sector as Rome tries to steady confidence in the sector. UniCredit said last week it would post an €11.8bn loss for 2016 due to one-off hits stemming mainly from loan writedowns, as it prepares to offload €17.7bn in bad debts under a restructuring plan outlined in December. This follows the hiring by Italy’s biggest bank by assets of French investment banker Jean Pierre Mustier as its new CEO in July, with a brief to address long-standing concerns about UniCredit’s weak capital base. As part of the wider restructuring, UniCredit said on Saturday it had agreed with unions to 3,900 lay-offs in Italy as part of its plan to cut 14,000 staff by 2019. Yesterday, shares in UniCredit ...

Subscribe now to unlock this article.

Support BusinessLIVE’s award-winning journalism for R129 per month (digital access only).

There’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in SA. Our subscription packages now offer an ad-free experience for readers.

Subscribe Sign in

Cancel anytime.

Questions? Email helpdesk@businesslive.co.za or call 0860 52 52 00. Got a subscription voucher? Redeem it now.

Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.

SIGN UP

SIGN IN

Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.