ALITALIA falls short in effort to raise emergency cash...

The Italian airline Alitalia has announced that it received less than two-thirds of the 300 million euros, it was seeking in an emergency cash call, though it said it expected to raise the rest from the state-owned postal service and other investors. The cash, part of a bigger rescue package engineered by the government, is seen
as a stopgap measure to give the unprofitable airline a few months to find a strategic investor.

Alitalia said that it hhad received 173 million euros by the deadline for existing shareholders to subscribe to its rights issue, including guarantee payments made by Italy's two largest banks, Intesa Sanpaolo and Uni Credit. It said it expected to sell the rest of the shares in a second phase. The postal service, which the state brought into the rescue plan in October, will invest 75 million, and the airline hopes to persuade other investors to take part.

More troubles for our lovely neighbors, "deja-vu", to the blogger's eye.....