The biggest stakeholder in Monte
dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) said Monday that it has sold 6.5% of
the troubled Italian bank.
The MPS Foundation said it had sold 4.5% of the bank to
Fintech, a United States-based investment fund owned by Mexican
businessman David Martinez.
BTG Pactual Europe, a subsidiary of an Brazilian investment
bank, bought 2%.
The MPS Foundation said it now has a 5.5% stake.
MPS President Alessandro Profumo said last week that the
bank will proceed with a capital increase to raise three billion
euros in May.
The planned share issue has been tied to repaying part of
the 4.1-billion euros in State aid that MPS received from the
Italian government as part of a plan to turn the lender around.
Analysts have said the bank may risk nationalization if it
fails to generate enough capital to repay State aid.
Italy's third-largest bank was thrown into crisis in
January 2013 when it emerged that a shady series of derivative
and structured-finance deals produced losses of 720 million
euros.
Siena prosecutors have been pursuing charges of alleged
bribery, corruption, tax evasion and other allegedly illicit
operations at MPS, which were either related to the bank's
nine-billion-euro acquisition of rival Antonveneta in 2008 or
the period following the takeover.
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