Caricento, that’s why the unions snort on Credem
Objectives and (trade union) controversies on the merger by incorporation between Credito Emiliano and Caricento. Emanuela Rossi's article
Announced in October last year, the merger by incorporation between Credito Emiliano and Caricento is proceeding at a good pace. The group led by general manager Nazzareno Gregori – 598 branches, 6,288 employees and net profit at the end of 2020 at 201.6 million – aims at annual synergies of 15 million, as said by the co-general manager Angelo Campani presenting the operation, and the current shareholders of the Ferrara bank will come to hold 2.62% of Credem. In the meantime, however, the first stomach ache begins to arrive.
THE CREDEM-CARICENTO MERGER
On May 17, the merger between the two credit institutions took off with the filing of the documentation in the relevant business registers. An operation, Il Sole 24 Ore found , "between a reality, that of Cento, which represents a fraction of the numbers of Credem (7 billion total business – deposits of 4.1 billion and loans for 3 – against 125 billion about Credem), but which stands out for the quality of assets and profitability, which have always been points of attention for the Emilian bank ". Without forgetting that Caricento is very present in a territory, namely the province of Ferrara – in which Credem is active: “From here – notes the Confindustria newspaper – the possibility of creating important synergies, although no redundancies are foreseen”. Caricento, as Credem recalls in the press release, has a history of over 160 years in support of the territory and at the end of 2020 it had over 71,000 customers through 408 people and a network of 42 branches and 5 Private and Wealth Management Centers, with customer deposits for 4.1 billion euros and loans for 3 billion euros.
The merger by incorporation, the note continues, provides for the incorporation of Caricento into Credem with a share exchange of 0.64 shares of the largest group for each share of the Ferrara bank. In this way, the Caricento shareholders will be able to have a share listed on the MTA of Piazza Affari with a premium of 50% compared to the average of the two shares in the four months prior to the official communication of the transaction (23 October last) and at current values. Stock Exchange will receive an additional benefit of over 16% for an overall increase of over 95%.
THE CRITICISM OF THE TRADE UNIONS IN CREDEM
The bank unions are also watching over the merger, which in recent days are complaining that Credem does not want to keep some items of the salary of Caricento employees. “With great bitterness on the part of the trade union front, the negotiations with Credem did not lead to an agreement – stated in a joint note Fabi, First Cisl, Fisac Cgil, Unisin -. The trade union negotiations were aimed, it should be remembered, at averting the harmful economic repercussions for Caricento personnel in the merger between the two banks. In compliance with a consolidated practice in this kind of negotiations, we asked Credem to keep the workers of Caricento the economic items in place, moreover dating back to the former Acre agreements of the 1980s and, for supplementary pensions, to 2009. The request is a firm refusal was placed by Credem and therefore, from the merger date, they will no longer be paid. This is unacceptable to us ”.
For trade unions, “the extent of this denial appears even more evident if we consider that the aggregation in question takes place between healthy banks, aimed at growing the joint turnover”. Fabi, First, Fisac and Unisn highlight how the economic items that were requested to be maintained "would have accounted for approximately 0.1% of personnel costs: nothing for Credem, but a not negligible amount for the approximately 350 employees of Caricento, who certainly did not choose who to buy them and who expected an agreement in line with what happens in the sector in similar situations ". The trade unions ask themselves if it is “right that these people, mere spectators of a design conceived above their heads and without having been in the least involved, should risk having their salary cut? And that this will benefit a buyer who declares more than 200 million profits in 2020 ”. So the unions promise that in the next few days they will outline "the initiatives to protect the salaries of Caricento employees", expecting "the support of all the centesian, provincial and regional institutions".
THE NEWS ON THE BOARD FOR CREDEMHOLDING
Meanwhile, a few days ago, the go-ahead was given by the shareholders of Credemholding, the company that controls 78.59% of the share capital of Credem, for the 2020 financial statements of the group which presents a consolidated profit of 158.6 million, up by 2.6% compared to 154.6 million in 2019. The shareholders' meeting also approved the distribution of a dividend of 2 euros per share with coupon which will be paid starting from Thursday 24 June for a total dividend of 32,957,702 euros.
The green light has also arrived for the new board of directors (with eight 8 members) which will remain in office until the approval of the financial statements for 2023. Ignazio Maramotti confirmed on the board as vice president, and then Claudia Alfieri, Fabrizio Corradi, Benedetto Renda and Paolo Tadolini. New entry Barbara Ferrari, former president Giorgio Ferrari and Mariaelena Fontanesi have left. Lucio Iginio Zanon di Valgiurata has been appointed president who will be able to count – in addition to Maramotti – also on the other vice president Enrico Corradi. The latter are also president and vice-presidents of Credem.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/credem-che-cosa-non-va/ on Wed, 23 Jun 2021 07:39:11 +0000.