Italian auto maker Fiat SpA formally asked to buy a second tranche of shares in Chrysler Group LLC held by a United Auto Workers' health-care trust that is the U.S. automaker's second-largest holder after Fiat, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Fiat said the second tranche represents an about 3.3 percent stake in Chrysler, the same amount as the first tranche.

Troubled steelmaker Lucchini, Italy's second-largest producer, has requested to be placed under receivership procedures to save it from bankruptcy, Reuters reported on Saturday. The measure, which involve the appointment of an administrator chosen by the government, aims at saving large insolvent companies. "The board hope it will be possible to find a solution for the company's crisis which can value the efforts so far borne by the firm," the steelmaker said in a statement on Dec. 21.

Italian business confidence rose for a second month after a recession eased in the third quarter and the nation's borrowing costs declined, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The manufacturing-sentiment index increased to 88.9 in December from 88.5 the previous month, Rome-based national statistics institute Istat said yesterday. Italy’s economy shrank 0.2 percent in the three months through September, about a third of the contraction recorded in the previous quarter. Read more.

Former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi said on Tuesday Italy would be forced to leave the euro zone unless the European Central Bank gets more powers to ensure lower borrowing costs, Reuters reported. Berlusconi, who announced this month he will again lead his People of Freedom party (PDL) in a national election expected in February, said on a talk-show on state broadcaster RAI that the ECB should become a lender of last resort for the currency bloc.

As Prime Minister Mario Monti prepares to exit the stage, he has burnished Italy’s image — and his own — abroad, but he is less beloved at home, the International Herald Tribune reported. Italians are irate about higher taxes, while critics say that Mr. Monti failed to carry out the basic structural changes he said were needed, leaving a legacy more of austerity than growth. While Mr.

The European Central Bank's pledge to stand by vulnerable euro zone members will be enough to ensure Italy and Spain find buyers for their bonds at parallel auctions on Thursday, Reuters reported. In Italy, the ECB's bond-buying scheme is seen as a solid enough counterweight to the political tension and market jitters triggered by Prime Minister Mario Monti's weekend announcement of his intention to step down early.

Italian companies led an increase in the cost of insuring European debt after the collapse of Prime Minister Mario Monti’s government, while sales of corporate bonds slowed. Credit-default swaps on Enel SpA jumped 31 basis points to 246, UniCredit SpA climbed 30 to 325 and Intesa Sanpaolo SpA rose 29 to 304, while Telecom Italia SpA was 15 higher at 292, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Rome-based utility Enel SpA’s bonds were the worst performers in Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Euro Non-Financial Index of corporate securities.

Italy faces a deep crisis as its biggest steel plants struggle for survival, putting it in the forefront of a permanent decline in western Europe's steel sector and increasing cost pressures on many of the region's industries, Reuters reported. Producing crude steel in the European Union, where supply is 30 percent more than demand, has become too costly. Only the most technologically and environmentally advanced plants are set to survive. Italy's largest steel producers, ILVA and Lucchini, face potential shutdowns, which could cost the country 25,000 to 30,000 direct and indirect jobs.

The board of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA on Wednesday approved the bank's request for more government funds than planned, which will likely lead to the government taking a larger stake in the Italian bank, The Wall Street Journal reported. The bank will issue €3.9 billion ($5.05 billion)—about €500 million more than originally planned—in bonds that the government will underwrite, with the condition that the coupon attached to them will be converted into shares if the bank ends the year with a net loss.

The 40,000-person town of Sciacca has become a mausoleum of decades-old unfinished public works. Rainwater and weeds fill the basins of two indoor Olympic-scale swimming pools that have never opened, The Wall Street Journal reported. The cement carcass of a retirement home, overlooking Sciacca's port, remains bereft of tenants, or electricity, decades after its construction. "Our model for economic growth is not one based on balanced budgets," said longtime Sciacca resident Calogero Mannino, 73 years old, one of the town's principal rainmakers.