MILAN, July 14 (Reuters) - A pool of banks will have to buy shares worth almost 600 million euros in Saipem after a cash call by the Italian energy services firm fell short of the 2 billion euro target it was seeking from investors.
Saipem on Thursday said it sold further new shares worth just 12.4 million euros ($12.41 million) following an auction of unexercised rights, after raising an initial 1.4 billion euros, or 70% of the targeted amount.
This brings the final take-up for the cash call to 70.4%, leaving banks with new shares worth around 592 million euros to buy, Saipem said in a statement.
Investors bought actual new shares for only a tiny fraction of those represented by the unexercised rights auctioned earlier this week.
BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Intesa Sanpaolo and UniCredit were the joint global coordinators of the Saipem issue. ABN AMRO, Banca Akros, Banco BPM, Banco Santander, Barclays, BPER, Goldman Sachs International, Societe Generale and Stifel were listed as the joint bookrunners.
Saipem sold its new shares at an issue price of 1.013 euros each, at a ratio of 95 new shares for every one ordinary or savings share held. ($1 = 0.9988 euros) (Reporting by Giulio Piovaccari and Keith Weir, editing by Gianluca Semeraro)