The φ-meson production cross section is measured for the first time at a subthreshold energy of 1.93 AGeV in Ni+Ni central collisions. The φ data were obtained within the acceptance of the CDC/Barrel subsystem of FOPI. For a sample of 4.7 · 10 central events, after background subtraction, 23 candidates were observed. Extensive GEANT simulations of the detector performance are shown in a thoroug...