Italy’s Monte Paschi starts taking orders for shares

Economic impact: Customers queue to use an automated teller machine outside a branch of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA bank in Rome, Italy. The failure of the bank’s recapitalisation will be a blow to Italy’s sputtering efforts to revive a banking industry that’s burdened with about 360 billion euros in troubled loans. — Bloomberg

MILAN: Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA begins taking orders for shares today as it aims to complete raising 5 billion euros (US$5.2bil) by the end of the year to avoid a rescue by the Italian government.

Monte Paschi would sell stock to institutional investors through Thursday, while the offer for retail investors will end on Wednesday, the Siena, Italy-based bank said in a statement. The lender didn’t provide terms of the offer.