Saipem shares drop, group says cannot explain why

MILAN (Reuters) - Saipem does not have any information explaining Monday's share movements, a spokesman for the Italian energy contractor said, after the stock closed down 5.7%.

More than 10% of the share capital of the group was traded on the Milan stock exchange, according to Refinitiv data.

The stock hit a low of 1.3750 euros on Monday after rising last week to 1.5560 euros, the highest level touched since last summer, when it completed a large capital increase.

The reasons behind the heavy trading activity were unclear, with sources close to the matter pointing to different possible explanations including profit taking after recent gains.

Two traders also mentioned the possibility that banks that had bought into Saipem's capital increase at a price of 1.013 euros per share last summer decided to reduced their exposure to the group on Monday.

In July a pool of lender bought Saipem's shares worth almost 600 million euros after a cash call fell short of the 2 billion euro target.

BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Intesa Sanpaolo and UniCredit were the joint global coordinators of the Saipem issue. ABN AMRO, Banca Akros, Banco BPM, Banco Santander, Barclays, BPER, Goldman Sachs International, Societe Generale and Stifel were listed as the joint bookrunners.

(Reporting by Francesca Landini and Giancarlo Navach, editing by Gianluca Semeraro and Gavin Jones)