Shareholders in troubled Monte dei
Paschi di Siena (MPS) bank on Wednesday approved a
five-billion-euro capital hike to help pay back a
4.1-billion-euro government bailout from 2012 and regain
profitability.
The bank said that 96.68% of shareholders present,
representing almost 35% of the bank's current capital, voted in
favour of the capital boost.
MPS "is no longer a problem for the Italian banking system
and for this country," said bank President Alessandro Profumo.
Much of the capital increase will be used to pay down the
government debt in order to avoid nationalization, starting in
June, bank officials told the meeting.
Antonella Mansi, who is stepping down as president of the
powerful MPS Foundation, said she was confident that the bank's
restructuring is paying off and the new capital will help it to
stabilize.
The foundation has been the largest single shareholder in
the bank, but under Mansi's leadership, has cut its investment
to pay off debts.
"The results so far achieved represent the first step in
the process of relaunching the (MPS) group," said Mansi, who has
been credited with being a significant force in helping the bank
turn itself around financially.
Earlier this month, MPS announced that it lost 174.1
million euros in the first quarter of this year, a significant
increase compared with the loss of 101 million euros during the
same period last year.
The bank attributed the larger loss to non-recurring
factors.
Italy's third-largest bank by assets was thrown into crisis
in January 2013 when it emerged that a shady series of
derivative and structured-finance deals had produced losses of
720 million euros.
Since then, MPS has come under the spotlight on several
occasions in relation to investigations for suspected insider
trading and fraud.
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