The Central Bank of Libya has agreed to buy E250 million of convertible bonds issued by the Italian banking group UniCredit to fill the E500 million gap in the bank’s efforts to raise E3 billion capital to improve its ability to manage risk, Reuters has said citing Il Messaggero and Corriere della Sera newspapers.
UniCredit’s shareholders Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Torino (CRT) and Carimonte Holding will provide up to E230 million to fill the capital gap. The remaining E20 million will be provided by other smaller foundations, according to Corriere della Sera.
Previously, the CariVerona foundation, a shareholder in UniCredit with over 6% holding, decided to refrain from the capital raising measure initiated by UniCredit, resulting in a shortfall of E500 million.
Italian newspaper La Stampa has said that with this investment Libya’s central bank will increase its holding in UniCredit from 4.6% to nearly 7%, to become the biggest single shareholder in the Italian banking firm.
According to reports, the central bank, CRT and Carimonte would subscribe for E440 million bonds replacing all those undertakings previously made by CariVerona.
