Copasir-Tesoro War on Unicredit-Mps?

6 November 20203 years ago babelfish

What we read surprisingly about Unicredit and Mps in the Copasir report "on the protection of national strategic assets in the banking and insurance sectors".

"In addition, the transaction involving MPS should not be underestimated, in relation to which the Prime Minister's decree for the sale of impaired loans was recently issued, which is a prelude to a sale of the shares held by the Ministry of the Economy, and a sale of the institute to private subjects. Among the possible purchasers, there is UniCredit, whose policy, as mentioned above, raises doubts in terms of pursuing national interests ".

It is one of the passages that have caused the greatest sensation and surprise in political, ministerial and financial circles in the Copasir report “on the protection of national strategic assets in the banking and insurance sectors”.

For months the news reports – not based on press releases but on financial and political rumors – have been reporting on the efforts of the Ministry of Economy to give a private future to Mps, the Sienese bank now controlled by the Treasury with about 68% .

In this perspective, the Treasury is also probing the informal availability of Unicredit, although just yesterday the CEO of Unicredit, Jean-Pierre Mustier said : “We never comment on rumors. Our plan is not based on any M&A, we prefer to transform rather than integrate and remunerate shareholders ”.

Among other things, the financial advisor of Mps, Mediobanca , is also pursuing this scenario – according to rumors of Start Magazine .

But while the efforts of the Mef to give a future to MPS continue today comes this surprise passage from the Copasir report – written by two majority speakers, one from the Democratic Party and one from the 5 Star Movement – which is read by analysts and observers in critical key with respect to the moves of the Treasury and of the general manager Alessandro Rivera.

Copasir broadens the spectrum of criticisms towards Unicredit's prospects and scenarios – in the context of fears for the French but also German aims in particular for the Italian banking and insurance sector – coming to stigmatize a project shadowed by Unicredit: "It also appears that UniCredit it would have in mind a profound restructuring, which provides for the establishment of a subholding in which all the foreign activities of the bank should be included. The fear is that this initiative is prodromal to the sale of UniCredit's foreign assets, which would thus lose its international soul; another hypothesis could be an integration operation of the bank with another foreign institution, which could sanction the definitive withdrawal of the Bank from Italy ”.

Too bad that just yesterday Mustier cut short on this very aspect: “We launched the subholding project to optimize the cost of funding and liquidity from a Mrel perspective. In the current macro context, thanks to the massive purchases of the ECB and the low spread, there is no need to carry out this project. It remains a project but today it is not relevant ”.

But can a parliamentary committee such as the one for the security of the Republic base theses and wishes on the basis of rumors later denied by those directly involved? So what were the hearings for?

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HERE IS AN EXTRACT FROM COPASIR 'S REPORT WHICH CONCERNS IN PARTICULAR UNICREDIT AND MPS:

UniCredit is one of the main players in the national banking sector, the only one, at the moment, capable of combining a leadership position in the Italian market with a European soul, thanks to a branched presence in 18 countries around the world and, in particular, in Central-Eastern Europe, in Austria (where it wholly controls Bank Austria) and in Germany (with the subsidiary HypoVereinsbank – HVB, among the top 5 German banks by amount of assets and number of employees).

In Italy, UniCredit is the second largest banking group by number of branches (2,700) and, according to the calculations of the Italian Antitrust Authority, holds 10-15 percent of the total funding of the Italian system and 10-15 percent of loans to households, 5-10 percent of those to SMEs and a 10-15 percent share of loans to medium and large enterprises. On the national territory, the Institute employs approximately 37,000 employees and, in terms of market capitalization (equal to approximately

16 billion euros), is the second bank, after Intesa Sanpaolo, and among the top ten companies listed on Piazza Affari. Finally, UniCredit represents one of the main investors in Italian government bonds with a portfolio that, as at 30 June 2020, amounted to approximately 44 billion euros.

Despite the importance of UniCredit for the national economic and financial system, the Milanese institute has taken some initiatives in recent years apparently aimed at freeing the bank from Italy. In fact, this could include the UniCredit sale transactions of some "Italian jewels", such as Fineco and Pioneer, or the reduction of the BTP portfolio which, from 2016 to date, has decreased by approximately 11 billion euros.

The group also seems to be heading towards a gradual contraction of its presence on the national territory, as evidenced by the Team23 industrial plan (for the period 2020 – 2023), presented to the markets on 3 December 2019, in which a cut of about 8,000 employees was planned , mainly in Italy (about 6,000) where the staff will be reduced by 21 percent, and the closure of 500 branches, of which 450 in our country.

It also appears that UniCredit is planning a profound restructuring, which involves the establishment of a subholding in which all the bank's foreign activities should be included. The fear is that this initiative is prodromal to the sale of UniCredit's foreign assets, which would thus lose its international soul; another hypothesis could be an integration operation of the bank with another foreign institution, which could sanction the definitive withdrawal of the Bank from Italy.

In this regard, in recent months there have been worrying news on possible merger transactions of UniCredit with other foreign players, including: the German institute Commerzbank (2), or the French banks Crédit Agricole (CA) and Société Générale (SOCGEN) .

In the opinion of the Committee, the initiatives by foreign actors on strategic entities for national economic security represent a risk of particular importance for the banking and public savings system, given that, in addition to jeopardizing their independence, they could determine a strong asymmetry between the area of collection of financial resources (3) (Italy) and that of their use (abroad). In fact, while continuing to come from Italian families and businesses, the resources raised by UniCredit could be used to finance foreign territories and production systems.

In addition, a substantial decrease in the banking activities carried out by UniCredit in Italy, or a progressive reduction in the investments made by the group in Italian government bonds, could produce a negative impact for our country.

(2) Commerzbank AG is the second largest German bank, listed on the Frankfurt stock exchange and with a 15.6 per cent stake in the Federal Republic of Germany.

(3) Intended as deposits, bank certificates, repurchase agreements and bonds placed with customers.

(…)

In this context, UniCredit's strategy is a cause for concern, which, through possible merger operations with foreign entities (including Commerzbank, i.e. the French Crédit Agricole and Société Générale), would seem to want to set up a sub-holding, into which resources acquired through the collection of savings in Italy.

Furthermore, the transaction involving MPS should not be underestimated, in relation to which the Prime Minister's decree for the sale of impaired loans was recently issued, which is a prelude to a sale of the shares held by the Ministry of Economy, and a sale of the 'institute to private subjects. Among the possible buyers, there is UniCredit, whose policy, as mentioned, raises concerns in terms of the pursuit of national interests.

Also other operations, always connected to the activism of the French partner, in the opinion of the Committee, must be carefully monitored. In particular, as already mentioned in chapter 5.4, the Delfin capital increase in Mediobanca could change its corporate structure, with consequences for our main insurance institution, Generali, which, as is well known, holds a considerable package of government bonds.

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/guerra-copasir-tesoro-su-unicredit-mps/ on Fri, 06 Nov 2020 14:50:07 +0000.