Not just Generali. What will insurances do with dividends?
Insurance concerned about the new directives of the authorities regarding the destruction of dividends. Facts, names, numbers and scenarios. Emanuela Rossi's article
The return to post-pandemic normality? It also switches from the distribution of dividends. This was sanctioned by Ivass which, during the recent presentation of the Annual Report, communicated that it did not want to ask for further squeeze from the boundaries of the shareholders of the insurance companies. Last year, in fact, the companies in the sector had mostly followed the invitations of Eiopa, the EU Authority, and of the Supervisory Institute itself, led since last February by Federico Signorini instead of Daniele Franco, who moved to via XX Settembre, seat of the Department of Economy, with the arrival of Mario Draghi at Palazzo Chigi.
WHAT HAPPENED IN 2020
The emergency coronavirus has opened a debate within the insurance who were preparing to detach the coupon for the year 2019. To induce them to this solicitation by EIOPA , the European Authority on insurance companies, and the recommendation of 'Ivass who on March 17, 2020 sent a letter to sector groups to invite top managers to be prudent in paying coupons and the variable part of the remuneration. Moreover, the Supervisory Authority has announced a “close monitoring” of the behavior of the companies. Now, however, the Insurance Supervisory Institute believes that it is not necessary to renew the block, which last year had avoided the distribution to shareholders of approximately € 4.4 billion.
WHAT SIGNORINI THINK (IVASS)
Last week , the president of Ivass and general manager of the Bank of Italy, Luigi Federico Signorini, drew attention to the issue during his first presentation of the institute's annual report. “The situation is now less dramatic – he said -. At the end of September the European recommendation ceases to have effect. Unless the economic, financial and health situation deteriorates seriously (a possibility that cannot yet be ruled out), we do not see the need to repeat it ”. With regard to dividends, he added, “the importance of a more coordinated action emerges once again” to avoid differences as happened with Germany and partly with France where coupons were detached, unlike what happened in Italy.
HOW THE INSURANCE COMPANIES BEHAVED
Generali , the largest Italian company, and one of the largest on a continental level, did not pay a cent last year but the meeting of a few months approved the board's proposal to distribute a dividend of 1.47 euros per share, from pay in two installments of 1.01 and 0.46 euros. The first was paid starting from May 26 last and represents the ordinary pay-out from the 2020 profit while the second, relating to the part of the 2019 dividend not distributed, will be payable starting from next October 20 for a disbursement. overall maximum of € 2.315 billion
Unipol opted for a mixed solution: it paid the dividend for the shareholders of the subsidiary UnipolSai (€ 0.16 per share) and instead moved the coupon detachment to 2021 for its shareholders who, however, gained from it: the board of directors the administration has in fact decided to opt for a payment of 0.28 euros per share, 55% higher than the 18 cents of 2019. It should be remembered that Carlo Cimbri, dominus of Unipol, in recent months has always encouraged the shareholders by saying that he is ready to call a shareholders' meeting to approve the distribution of profit reserves as soon as the conditions were met.
Coupons in payment from 6 May last – at 47 cents per share – for Vittoria Assicurazioni and no dividend, however, for Cattolica Assicurazioni which in 2020 posted a profit of 36 million, halved compared to 2019.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/non-solo-generali-cosa-faranno-le-assicurazioni-con-i-dividendi/ on Tue, 06 Jul 2021 10:08:08 +0000.