MILAN, June 24 (Reuters) - A rescue plan for Fiat will include a 1.8 billion-euro capital increase to be completed as early as July and a new two billion-euro syndicated loan from banks, Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore reported on Tuesday.
Il Sole said the plan would extend until 2008 a three billion-euro convertible loan offered by creditor banks to the loss-making industrial group last year. The financial daily said the plan had support from two leading creditors, Banca Intesa and UniCredito , which were pressing the six other banks to agree by Thursday.
That is when Fiat Chief Executive Giuseppe Morchio will unveil the turnaround plan that is expected to axe as many as 12,000 jobs, most outside Italy.
Late on Monday, Fiat-owned farm equipment-maker CNH Global NV confirmed it would be included in the restructuring.
Other Italian newspapers on Tuesday said Fiat's creditor banks were still wary of the plan.
Financial daily MF said of the eight banks, only UniCredito was in favour of a 2.0 billion-euro capital increase for Fiat plus a new loan worth the same amount in return for changes to the terms of the 2002 convertible loan.
Fiat had offered a discount of three euros per share on the strike price of the convertible loan as well as its extension until 2008 from its current expiry date in 2005, it said.
But the banks were holding out for a complete revision of the loan's terms and also insisting that the Agnelli family, which founded Fiat and whose members remain its controlling shareholders, should contribute more cash to the plan, MF said.
Concerns about a share capital increase at Fiat have weighed on the company's shares which have underperformed the DJ Stoxx index of European auto stocks by 13 percent this year.
Il Sole said the planned share issue would be underwritten by creditor banks plus Citicorp and Merrill Lynch , and the new loan would be priced at 150 basis points over the interbank rate, or 4.5 to 5.0 percent.