Mps, because the government wants to torpedo Bastianini (defended by Pd, M5s and Lega)
All the political turmoil between Rome and Siena on Mps. Facts, names, rumors and comments
It is a real political palio that is staged in Siena on Mps.
On the one hand there is the shareholder Tesoro – the Ministry of Economy has 64% of Monte dei Paschi di Siena – which aims to replace the number one of the Monte, Guido Bastianini, on the other hand the vast majority of the parties that make up the government coalition that are holding back or criticizing the intentions of the department headed by Daniele Franco and the forcing of the director general of the Treasury, Alessandro Rivera.
The crux of the dispute is the capital increase – yet another – of MPS that the Treasury wants to avoid in order not to shell out further billions in that bottomless pit that now seems to be the Sienese institute.
Here are the latest news-
WHAT LEGA, PD AND M5S SAY ABOUT THE TREASURE SIGHTS IN MPS AGAINST BASTIANINI
The leader of the League, Matteo Salvini, took sides in defense of the managing director of MPS, Bastianini: "Minister Daniele Franco clarifies: is a manager who has shown that Mps can walk really under discussion?". «Bastianini is an example of competence and discontinuity with respect to past management. The minister denies these rumors ", echoed the exponent of the Cinquestelle Riccardo Fraccaro, former minister in the Conte government, who was a supporter of the appointment of the manager at the top of Siena in April 2020. Senator Pd Andrea Marcucci and the deputy of LeU Stefano Fassina, underlines the Sole 24 Ore . Dai Dem the appeal comes from Eugenio Giani, president of Tuscany, explicit in the request not to hit the one who has done the most to relaunch the Monte.
THE MOVES OF THE GOVERNMENT
Daniele Franco's answer will arrive on February 15, when the hearing of the Minister of the Economy is scheduled for the bicameral on banks, requested as early as November after the halt to negotiations with UniCredit but always postponed. Even if the first key date is that of next Monday, the 7th, when the Rocca Salimbeni board of directors will have to approve the 2021 accounts. And it is not excluded that the push to exit may already manifest itself there.
THE MPS DOSSIER IN BRUSSELS
Beyond the political convulsions multiplied by the temptations of yellow-green rupture, the first problem on Franco's table is precisely in the numbers of the Siena industrial plan, points out the Sole 24 Ore; “In a chain that links the negotiations with the EU on the extension and objectives of reprivatization, the timing of the 2.5 billion capital increase and the governance of the bank. In a sequence that sees the choices on the top as the first move, functional to the practicability of the targets on which a new agreement with Brussels can be founded. The most problematic figures appear once again those on the cost structure. The strategic plan approved at the end of 2021 provides for the cost / income ratio to fall below 60% from 2024. But the DG Comp asked to bring it to 51% as early as 2021. Leverage is very delicate, because it involves employment implications that are complicated to manage on the economic as well as political ".
HERE IS THE NEW PLAN (Feasible?) OF MPS
The MPS plan presented in recent weeks by Bastianini provides for a capital increase of 2.5 billion euros to be carried out in 2022, Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) announced last Friday, communicating the new 2022-2026 industrial plan.
PERSONNEL CHAPTER IN MPS
The Sienese bank ( controlled by the Ministry of Economy with 64%) is planning to activate a plan of voluntary staff departures, with cost savings of approximately 275 million euros per year. These savings could for the most part be realized by 2024, depending on the negotiations with the trade unions which hypothesize up to 4,500 exits.
WHAT THE NEW MPS PLAN PROVIDES
The MPS plan for 2026 provides for initiatives to support growth, with immediate and tangible transformation efforts that will lead to constant profitability and capital benefits: in particular, the bank note reads, a pre-tax profit is expected already in 2024 of 700 million euros, a cost-income ratio below 60% (from the current 70%), a cost of risk of 50 basis points, a return on tangible capital of approximately 8.5-9% in the 2024 (to rise to 11% in 2026) and a Fully loaded Cet1 ratio higher than 14% in 2024 and equal to approximately 17.5% in 2026, before dividends and before the positive effect of the revaluation of the DTAs deriving from the plan .
HERE IS THE NTH INCREASE IN CAPITAL
Basically, the plan approved by the board chaired by Patrizia Grieco starts from the assumption that the bank will instead have to stand on its own feet. Hence the 2.5 billion capital increase (to be carried out in 2022), of which one billion will be used to cover the restructuring costs; 800 million will be dedicated to investments in IT and finally the remainder will be used to bring the capital ratios above the alarm levels, thus filling the deficits that emerged with the 2020 stress tests.
THE SUBBUGLI IN TUSCANY
It has been clear to insiders for some time that relations between Bastianini and the Treasury – which also nominated him – are not idyllic. At the end of 2020, the CEO presented a "stand alone" industrial plan that was in fact opposed to the "structural solution", ie the sale pursued by the Treasury. However, the table with Unicredit, started at the end of 2020 and then made official with the new CEO Andrea Orcel, did not lead to an acquisition of the Sienese institute and so now the Treasury is negotiating with the European Commission (DgComp) an extension of 12- 18 months for the privatization of Mps, Corriere della Sera remarks: "A period of time that will have to serve to complete a new capital increase of about 2.5 billion and to put in place a plan for 4 thousand redundancies of staff, half of which according to union sources in Siena between general management, operating consortium, Mps Capital Services and Mps Leasing & Factoring. An issue that worries the president of the Tuscany Region, Eugenio Giani, who fears an MPS "stew".
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/mps-perche-il-governo-vuole-silurare-bastianini-difeso-da-pd-m5s-e-lega/ on Wed, 02 Feb 2022 08:19:39 +0000.