MILAN (Reuters) - Shareholders in Italian bank Veneto Banca have bought just 1 percent of its 1-billion euro stock sale, making it very likely that the lender's planned market listing will fail and that it will be taken over by bailout fund Atlante, a source close to the matter said.
Wednesday is the last day of the share offer for shareholders. An offer for institutional investors runs until June 24 but is expected to draw very poor demand, the source said.
Under Italian rules on minimum free float levels, investors would have to buy at least 250 million euros of the share sale for the bank to be allowed to list as planned.