Italy's top bankers usually keep their weekends strictly for relaxation. On Saturdays and Sundays, they turn out only for big mergers or corporate crises. It was the second of these that persuaded the main lenders to Fiat, the country's leading industrial group, to gather in Rome on Saturday May 25th. The bankers have been under pressure from Italy's central bank to reduce their exposure to Fiat, whose financial liabilities amounted at the end of March to a massive EUD35.6 billion ($31.1 billion), of which EUD13.4 billion was short-term debt. The Fiat group's net financial indebtedness, which takes account of financial receivables, cash and marketable securities, was EUD6.6 billion, an increase of EUD600m in the first quarter of the year, despite the arrival of EUD1 billion from a rights issue.
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