In Italian law you cannot allow your losses to accumulate so that the equity is eaten away could even become negative as they eat into the ownership capital (negative equity is common in failing UK companies), it must be replenished (which is the term I always use because the meaning is clear, while the literal "coverage" is less clear) , replaced, or "coperto" as they say in Italian.
https://www.google.co.uk/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&q="repl...

In Italian accounting an "esercizio" is normally a year (when a company starts business, the first esercizio, will probably be shorter) and a "periodo" is used for all other periods, half years and quarters. Often Italian "revisori" will correct this mistake made by Italian bookkeepers.

Garzanti:
4. periodo amministrativo, per lo più annuale, di un ente, di un’impresa: esercizio finanziario; l’esercizio 2005 si è chiuso in deficit; costi d’esercizio, riguardanti la normale gestione e non l’acquisizione di beni capitali




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Note added at 56 mins (2015-04-09 11:11:04 GMT)
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Italian writers of financial reports will often copy and paste sections of text from interim reports (periodo) into the final annual report (esercizio) and forget to change the "periodo" to "esercizio".