MILAN (Reuters) -Credit Agricole Italia has presented an offer to buy troubled lender Banca Carige, several Italian papers reported on Thursday.
The French bank has offered 1 euro and has asked for a capital injection of 700 million euros ($790 million) in the loss-making bank before the acquisition, Italian daily Il Messaggero said.
A spokeswoman for Credit Agricole Italia declined to comment.
Italian depositor protection fund FITD, funded by contributions from banks, owns an 80% stake in Carige after it bailed it out in 2019 and it has been looking for potential suitors. Cassa Centrale Banca holds 8.3%.
Italy’s BPER Banca EMII.MI last year made a takeover proposal to FITD for the controlling stake it holds in Carige, contingent on the fund first pumping one billion euros into the bank.
However, the Italian banks which are FITD’s stakeholders rejected that offer, saying the fund could not meet BPER’s capital demands as it was not allowed to inject more than 600-700 million euros into Carige.
($1 = 0.8860 euros)
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