BFF (Banca Farmafactoring), all the turmoil
What happens to BFF (Banca Farmafactoring)? The article by Emanuela Rossi
There is a rush at BFF (Banca Farmafactoring) for the management of the 49 redundancies. The trade union negotiations, after 11 meetings, have still not led to any results and, following the meeting of 13 January, Fabi, First Cisl, Fisac CGIL and Unisin active in BFF Bank have received the mandate to mobilize against the layoffs.
WHO IS BFF BANK AND WHAT DOES IT DO?
BFF Banking Group is a specialized finance operator, the largest in Italy and among the most important in Europe, which deals with the management and non-recourse disposal of trade receivables due from public administrations, in securities services and in payment. Founded in 1985 by a group of pharmaceutical companies, to meet their needs for the management and collection of receivables from the healthcare system, today it is active – as well as in our country – also in Croatia, France, Greece, Poland, Portugal, the Czech Republic , Slovakia and Spain. Between 2010 and 2013 BFF extended its offer to all suppliers of public bodies, in 2015 it transformed into a bank, listing on the Milan Stock Exchange two years later.
The latest economic data available, relating to the first nine months of 2022, tell of a rather healthy bank: adjusted net profit of €105.4 million (+33% year-on-year) and net book profit of €93 million, strong growth in the loan portfolio 4.8 billion (+37% year on year), to a new all-time high, adjusted net revenues of 275 million. In the third quarter of last year, dividends accrued for 36.8 million which will be paid following the shareholders' meeting scheduled for next April.
As at 30 September 2021, the consolidated balance sheet was equal to 13 billion (+18% compared to 30 September 2021) and the loan portfolio at 4,760 million (+37% year on year), at all-time highs, with a strong performance from Italy (+56% year on year). In terms of net non-performing loans (bad loans, defaults and past due) between January and September 2022 there was an increase to 286.2 million (104.1 million at the end of 2021 and 93.2 million at the end of September 2021), of which 91% are towards the public sector (80% at the end of 2021 and 79% at the end of the first nine months of 2021). Net non-performing loans, net of losses, amounted to €207.9 million compared to €39.6 million at the end of 2021 and €22.3 million in the first 9 months of 2021.
WHO IS CEO BELINGHERI
The manager at the helm of Banca Farmafactoring, Massimiliano Belingheri, is a Bocconian who began his career at McKinsey & Company, in Milan and London, as a business analyst. After an MBA (Baker Scholar) at Harvard he joined Apax Partners of which he became a partner in 2007 and head of the financial services team in Europe in 2008. From 2002 to 2004 he was also a director of Azimut Holding SpA and from 2011 to 2013 by Psagot Investment House. In December 2006 he joined the board of Bff Bank which he has led since December 2013.
Belingheri has the primacy of the highest paid CEO of an Italian bank. According to the ranking drawn up by Milano Finanza on the basis of the remuneration obtained in 2021 and without considering stock options, the top manager in fact earns over 6.4 million ahead of illustrious colleagues such as Carlo Messina of Intesa Sanpaolo (almost 4.2 million) and Alberto Nagel of Mediobanca (3.2 million). Far behind, at 1.8 million, Andrea Orcel of Unicredit who instead becomes the first in the standings if we add the shares (4.8 million) which bring the remuneration of the Roman banker to 6.8 million (also considering 89 thousand euros in cash variable).
THE MERGER WITH DEPOBANK
Almost two years ago now, in March 2021, BFF completed the closing of the acquisition and subsequent merger by incorporation of DepoBank. BFF acquired approximately 76% of the capital from the shareholders, in particular from Equinova, then the main shareholder of DepoBank with 91.6% (the remaining shares were in the hands of other Italian banks). Equinova is the holding company of Advent International Corporation, Bain Capital Private Equity Europe LLP and Clessidra SGR SpA Subsequently there was a share swap of the remaining 24% of DepoBank's share capital into BFF shares and a related increase in BFF's share capital , at the end of which Equinova holds 7.6% of the share capital of the resulting entity.
THE PROBLEM OF REFUND
In terms of trade union negotiations, as mentioned, BFF is unable to find an agreement for the management of the group's redundancies, a total of 49. According to Fabi, First Cisl, Fisac CGIL and Unisin "for the entire duration of the negotiations with over 11 meetings the bank has shown itself to be unavailable to all the proposals made while also remaining adamant on some absolutely unacceptable issues. First of all, the communication that if the number of voluntary exits is insufficient to cover the redundancies declared, the collective redundancy procedure will start as early as the beginning of February".
Furthermore, according to the trade union organisations, the bank has not undertaken "neither for a possible redeployment of employees nor for the opening of an income support fund which would have allowed access to a reasonable number of workers as an alternative to company proposal that allowed access at best to a maximum of 3 workers”.
"For the entire duration of the negotiation – reads the union statement – we fought strenuously for the relocation of colleagues, for the extension of the instruments (income support fund, incentivized redundancy, etc.) to the entire Bff Bank and above all, to prevent recourse to collective redundancies. We didn't succeed only due to the stubborn and blind will of the bank to preserve, rather than the workplace of colleagues and the economic security of their families, the balance sheet and the money that the Board of Directors/shareholders and the Chief Executive Officer (who with his 6.5 million salary he is the highest paid executive in Italy in the credit sector, more than the CEO of Intesa Sanpaolo) they are divided up periodically, without any hesitation”.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/banca-farmactoring-bff-cosa-succede/ on Sun, 22 Jan 2023 07:07:21 +0000.