ROME--Investment vehicles Sator Capital Ltd. and Palladio
Finanziara Friday relaunched their offer to help recapitalize
Fondiaria-SAI SpA (FSA.MI), Italy's second-largest life insurer,
raising the stakes in a controversial power struggle in Italian
finance.
Sator and Palladio said in a statement that they had submitted a
proposal to Fondiaria-SAI's board which would ultimately raise
EUR800 million in fresh equity--50% more than the company's current
market capitalization for the insurer, raising its regulatory
solvency ratio and helping other investors and creditors recover
value.
They said they wanted an answer within 10 days to their
proposal, which clashes with a rival offer made by Unipol Gruppo
Finanziario SpA (UNI.MI) to merge with Fondiaria-SAI in a deal
backed by Mediobanca SpA (MB.MI) and UniCredit SpA (UCG.MI),
creditors of the insurer, and Premafin Finanziaria SpA (PF.MI), the
insurer's controlling shareholder.
Their offer prompted a jump in Fondiaria-SAI's share price. At
0804 GMT shares were up 3.6% at EUR1.03.
Sator and Palladio, which together own 8% of Fondiaria-SAI
compared with UniCredit's 7% stake--said that Premafin investors
might, over the medium term, benefit from an increase in the value
of their Fondiaria-SAI shares, allowing the holding to pay back its
debts.
Premafin could own between 14% and 25% of Fondiaria-SAI after
the operation--down from its current 36% stake --depending on
whether it participated in the capital increase, the two Italian
investment vehicles said.
Fondiaria-SAI's other shareholders would suffer a smaller
dilution than in the rival Unipol offer, they claimed.
Separately, members of the Ligresti family that control Premafin
acknowledged that there were "critical points" in Unipol's offer
that had yet to be clarified or resolved.
Premafin shares were largely stable, as were those of Unipol.
Milan's FTSE-Mib index is down 2.3%, while shares in Italy's
largest insurer Assicurazioni Generali SpA (G.MI) are down 3%.
Write to chris.emsden@dowjones.com