All the turmoil in Banca Carige
What is happening in Banca Carige. Emanuela Rossi's article
Carige wants to return to normal after the rescue and the police station. Meanwhile, she is readmitted to trading on the Stock Exchange but she would certainly sail in better waters if someone involved her in the banking risk by making her a marriage proposal. The Interbank Deposit Protection Fund (Fitd), the bank's main shareholder, is at the forefront of the wedding, which in May had also dictated the timing through its president, Salvatore Maccarone. "By June we expect the first expressions of interest and I believe that with this we should have indications on a possible transfer process" he said in an interview with La Repubblica . And then: “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 but not at any cost ”.
THE REVOCATION OF THE SUSPENSION
After two years of the temporary suspension, we said, Consob has decided to readmit the Ligurian institute to trading by revoking the resolution of 2019. The readmission of the securities to Piazza Affari will take place on Tuesday 27 July or, as the Commission led by Paolo Savona informs, " on the third working day following the date of publication, on the issuer's website, of the Information Prospectus relating to the admission to trading of the ordinary shares deriving from the Issuer's Capital Increase ".
THE RETURN TO THE BAG AND NOT ONLY
In the prospectus prepared by Carige for the return to the Stock Exchange there are many interesting elements. Meanwhile, "attention is drawn to the fact that the business combination represents an essential action to be carried out in order to complete the process initiated by the Extraordinary Commissioners, in line with the specific mandate given them by the ECB". Unfortunately, however, "although the Fitd has started the process of divesting the equity investment in the Bank, however, at the date of the prospectus there is no certainty about if and when the business combination will be carried out". It is also recalled that Carige's business plan to 2023 provides "that in the last quarter of 2022, in the event that the flexibility regime on capital ratios granted to the banking system by the ECB is not extended beyond December 31, 2022" execution of a "capital strengthening operation" for a value of up to 400 million euros. The updated industrial plan, it should be remembered, provides that the 2021 financial year will close in the red for 84 million, which will be followed by another of 8 million in 2022 and a profit of 29 million in 2023.
As far as the targets are concerned, those relating to the 2021 financial year envisaged by the industrial plan are not confirmed because the institute has not yet reabsorbed "the differences" detected when the accounts for the first quarter were published. Instead, the 2022 and 2023 strategic lines and targets confirmed on the basis of "the expectation of an acceleration of the effects of the actions already planned and / or the timely launch of new actions" although there is no "certainty" of achieving them within the expected times "Of the uncertainties underlying the assumptions of the plan". Certainly, it states, "the failure or incomplete or temporally delayed realization of the assumptions / actions underlying the Plan could have very significant negative effects on the economic, equity and financial situation of the Group, up to jeopardizing the prospect of business continuity".
Finally, on the shares front, there is the risk that, right from the readmission to trading, the price “may fluctuate considerably, with significant negative effects also on the price at which the warrants will be negotiated”. Such an event, therefore, “could lead to significant losses in value in the investment in shares and warrants of the issuer”.
WHAT IS IN THE FUTURE OF BANCA CARIGE
In short, while preparing to return to Piazza Affari, Carige continues to think about what awaits her, especially since "despite the commercial relaunch work initiated by the CEO Francesco Guido – writes Il Sole 24 Ore -, the group is serving a chronic difficulty in generating profitability, weakness weighed down by the effect of the pandemic and the unfolding of the negative effects of the new accounting standards (IFRS9). Only with the acquisition by another banking entity, Carige could avoid a new increase that would inevitably weigh on the shoulders of the current shareholders, namely the Interbank Fund (79.9%) and Cassa Centrale Banca (8.3%) ".
At the moment, both Banco Bpm and Credito Emiliano have "timidly entered the data room". Of course, the Ligurian bank is made attractive by a “not negligible 'treasure' of 1.4 billion in tax credits (Dta), which could be tempting to the buyer. Someone observes that the legislation on DTAs could, however, change once again, and therefore it cannot be ruled out that any buyers may want to think without bowls ”.
THE REQUESTS OF MALACALZA
While looking to the future, however, we cannot forget the past which, in the case of Carige, is as heavy as the 539 million the Malacalza family claimed in court against the bank it owned until two years ago. The owner Vittorio and his sons contest the validity of the meeting which on 20 September 2019 approved the capital increase of 700 million – then largely underwritten by the Fitd – effectively saving the bank. Carige considers the risk of losing to be “remote” and therefore has not made any provisions while he has filed a counterclaim before the Court of Genoa where the judgment is pending. Carige, as reported in the prospectus on the capital increase, instead asked the previous owners for compensation for damages of at least 229 million "in relation to conduct previously and during" the extraordinary administration by Malacalza Investimenti. The sentence should be filed next November.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/che-cosa-sta-succedendo-in-banca-carige/ on Mon, 26 Jul 2021 03:40:28 +0000.