Banca Marche Repays Loan as Central Bank Seeks Backer for Lender
By Sonia Sirletti and Tom Beardsworth - 25/giu/2015 14:33:06
Banca delle Marche SpA, the Italian regional lender that’s under central bank administration, repaid a 1.8 billion-euro ($2 billion) loan after Credito Fondiario SpA sold securities that guaranteed the financing.
Credito Fondiario sold collateral including Banca Marche’s senior bonds after the bank failed to repay the borrowing. The sale generated a liquidity surplus for Banca Marche, the lender said in a statement Thursday, without disclosing the amount.
Banca Marche, run by administrators appointed by the Bank of Italy since a capital shortfall emerged in 2013, is seeking new investors and plans to raise cash by selling assets. Administrators have until October, when their mandate expires, to find backers to inject about 1 billion euros that’s needed for the bank to be viable, according to people with knowledge of the discussions.
Credito Fondiario, which specializes in managing non-performing loans, last year started work on a plan that included a sale of new stock by Banca Marche to international funds and to Italy’s bank-funded deposit guarantee scheme. European authorities favor a reorganization that doesn’t involve the deposit fund, one of the people said, leaving the administrators little time to find an alternative solution.
Banca Marche bonds fell to a record in May after the bank, based in the Jesi, central Italy, failed to repay the loan to Credito Fondiario. The two agreed to sell the collateral instead because the lender, being under special administration, can’t access capital markets to roll over the debt, Banca Marche Chief Financial Officer Maurizio Bocchini said May 20. The collateral, including 300 million euros of government-guaranteed senior bonds and mortgage-backed securities had a face value of 2.3 billion euros.
A spokeswoman for Credito Fondiario declined to comment.