MILAN (Reuters) - Italy's Banca Carige <CRGI.MI> needs 200 million euros (176.4 million pounds) of fresh capital to clean its balance sheet from soured loans and to attract a potential buyer in the future, daily Il Sole 24Ore reported in Tuesday.
Italy is considering merging troubled banks Carige and Monte dei Paschi <BMPS.MI> with healthier rivals such as UBI Banca <UBI.MI> as it scrambles to avert a new banking crisis, sources told Reuters last week.
Carige needs fresh capital on top of a 320 million euros hybrid bond subscribed last year by Italy's depositor guarantee fund FITD, Il Sole said, citing an internal study carried out along with Mediobanca's research unit.
Carige might be nationalised if it were not able to raise such funds, the paper said.
(Reporting by Giulio Piovaccari; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)
