Scandal-plagued nationalised Austrian bank Hypo Alpe Adria said Wednesday that it may need more than two billion euros ($2.5 billion) in state aid this year and next. Half a billion euros will be injected immediately through a capital hike, to be discussed by parliament in an extraordinary session on December 7, higher than the 300 million euros put aside in the government's budget.
A further one billion euros will come via a state-guaranteed loan to avoid burdening the budget, although details still need to be worked out and the supervisory board and European authorities need to approve the move, it said. In addition, the bank could require another 700 million euros next year, if its situation does not improve.
Austrian authorities are probing the bank, nationalised in late 2009 after its near-collapse, for alleged conspiracy, fraud, embezzlement, money laundering and false accounting. The bank, which has a strong presence in the Balkans, has also been implicated in bribery cases involving former Croatian prime minister Ivo Sanader and controversial former Austrian far-right leader Joerg Haider.
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