Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Berlusconi Promises to Protect Italian Banks Against Speculators

The ANNOTICO Report

 

Unicredit, Italy's largest bank by assets, lost nearly one-quarter of its stock value this week.after being subjected to a speculator onslaught. Unicredit will spin off a portion of it's real estate to maintain margins.

 

Unicredit Trading Suspended After Stock Falls
Associated Press

October 1, 2008,

MILAN, Italy -

Trading in shares of Unicredit, Italy's largest bank by assets, was suspended several times Wednesday on the Milan Stock Exchange after the stock lost nearly one-quarter of its value this week.

Shares were trading at 2.55 euros ($3.65), down nearly 2 percent, after being suspended several times for excessive losses.

Unicredit CEO Alessandro Profumo was meeting with top managers, but the company said it was a scheduled meeting and not in response to the stock market moves on Wednesday.

Italian news agencies quoted Premier Silvio Berlusconi as saying he would not allow speculative attacks on Italian banks.

"I will not allow speculative attacks on our banks and I will not accept having Italian citizens lose even a euro of their deposits," Berlusconi said from Naples, the news agencies ANSA and Apcom reported.

The bank announced on Wednesday that it was spinning off a portion of its real estate portfolio in a transaction that is aimed at raising its Tier I capital ratio, a key measure of a bank's financial strength, to its goal of 6.2 percent by the end of the year.

Unicredit is Italy's biggest bank by assets, with more than 1 trillion euros ($1.43 trillion) in assets. It is among Europe's top 5 banks as ranked by assets, but the loss in share value puts it only among the top 10 for market capitalization.

 

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