All the doors on Carige (Bastianini in the viewfinder?)
What's new in the Banca Carige dossier. Facts, names, numbers, tensions and scenarios
Not only Montepaschi. Another possible pawn of the banking risk, namely Carige, has also been talked about in these days. According to the Radiocor agency, the game for the sale of the former Malacalza family's institute is coming to life and at the beginning of July the first phase could be closed with the compilation of a short list of suitors who will have to knock on the door of the Interbank Protection Fund dei Depositi, the majority shareholder of Carige.
THE TIMING OF PRESIDENT MACCARONE
Last May 22 it was the president of the Interbank Fund himself who dictated the timing of the sale. In an interview with La Repubblica Salvatore Maccarone had said: "I trust in a timescale that is not too long: by June we expect the first expressions of interest and I believe that with this we should have indications on a possible transfer process". And again: “I expect that in the second half of the year we will arrive at the formulation of a concrete hypothesis. However, I believe that the definitive sale cannot take place before the beginning of 2022; for us the sooner it is done the better – he said – but not at any cost ”.
THE FAREWELL OF CENTRAL BANK CASH
The sale transaction is also placed in the aftermath of the backward step of Cassa Centrale Banca, the Trentino parent company of the Bcc which held 8.3% of Carige and which last March announced that it did not want to exercise the option. call to acquire 80% of the bank's capital, purchased by the Interbank Deposit Protection Fund following the 2019 bailout. In the letter sent to the 77 mutual banks of the group and consulted by Radiocor , the president of CCB, Giorgio Fracalossi, spoke of "painful decision taken as a result of an intense dialectical confrontation" but "based on the principle of sound and prudent management and defined in the light of the uncertainty of the impacts of the pandemic on the market and its unpredictable evolution, with neutralization of any possible further risk factor for our group ". Moreover, Fracalossi wrote again, the choice of Ccb was made "at the state of the proceedings, based on current information and projections, urgently and in advance of the provisions of the contracts in force, to allow the Interbank Deposit Protection Fund and to the Fund's Voluntary Scheme to possibly enter into negotiations with other market players and / or find an alternative solution / partnership in the general interest and of Carige ".
THE POSSIBLE CLAIMERS
According to what Il Sole 24 Ore revealed over the weekend, Credito Emiliano is about to access the data room and Banco Bpm is also interested in Carige. A few weeks ago, however, when Unipol – Bper's first shareholder – announced its intention to purchase approximately 6.62% of the share capital of Banca Popolare di Sondrio through its subsidiary UnipolSai – to rise to approximately 9.51% of the institute – La Stampa has hypothesized a scenario in which Carige could also fall: "Beyond the official declarations – wrote the newspaper directed by Massimo Giannini – it is difficult not to see a broader plan for the construction of a banking center under the control of the insurance company. A design that does not stop in Sondrio but goes towards Carige. The Interbank Fund, which controls the institution, has to find a buyer after Cassa Central Bank pulls back from the 2020 agreements and is referred to by many as the perfect prey for Bper. In this hypothesis, the aggregation around Bper di Sondrio, Carige and the 587 former Ubi Banca branches acquired by Intesa make the Emilian bank the real third banking center in the country, detached from the giants Intesa and Unicredit but ahead of Banco Bpm , at this point a real big excluded from the games in progress ".
On the possible future partners of Carige, in the interview with La Repubblica Maccarone had been rather evasive, as required: "The banking sector shows a certain liveliness and I am confident that Carige can be part of one of the reorganization profiling or hypothesizing on the market. There are signs that seem favorable to us ”. In short, even Carige could be a piece of the risk that is being composed. Without forgetting, however, the possible interest of private equity funds. To a direct question, the president of Fitd replied: “Funds are a constant presence on the market and perform a useful function; have also approached Carige in the past "he recalled, also highlighting – with regard to the hypothesis of sale in pieces – that" if the buyer's interest in this sense emerges in the negotiations, the hypothesis of selling individual assets could also be evaluated but it is not the initial indication ".
CARIGE AND MONTEPASCHI
A fate, that of the “stew”, which would unite the other – and main protagonist – of the banking risk or MPS of which the Treasury must hand over control (64%) within the year, as per agreements with Brussels.
According to La Repubblica , in fact, the CEO of Unicredit, Andrea Orcel, has already made it clear to Via XX Settembre that it is not his intention to buy the entire Rocca Salimbeni property – which has a legal bomb worth over 10 billion at the gates. – but to limit oneself to activities in Tuscany and the Northeast. The branches in the South, on the other hand, could go to Mediocredito Centrale which has already made it known, through its president Bernardo Mattarella, that it is ready to do its part. At that point, Orcel might want to broaden the range of action, perhaps aiming at Banco Bpm and thus giving a displeasure to Giuseppe Castagna, who has been trying for some time to defend the autonomy of the Lombard group.
To link Genoa and Siena, or Carige and Montepaschi, also the current number one of the Rocca and former CEO of the Ligurian bank, Guido Bastianini (nominated in M5S share) who however – according to press rumors – would not be well regarded by the current minister of Economy and Finance, Daniele Franco, on whose table stands the dossier Mps.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/tutte-le-sportellate-su-carige-bastianini-nel-mirino/ on Mon, 14 Jun 2021 12:58:45 +0000.