Stock market, all about Banca Progetto’s flop project
Why did the Oaktree fund, main shareholder of Banca Progetto, block the listing of the credit institution on the Milan Stock Exchange? Facts, numbers and insights
Stop to the listing on Piazza Affari for Banca Progetto. Thus, as reported by Bloomberg , the Oaktree fund – the main shareholder with almost 100% of the credit institution – decided in recent days to block a public purchase offer – amounting to 600 million – a few days after the presentation of the information prospectus.
PROJECT BANK: HISTORY AND SHAREHOLDERS
Banca Progetto, formerly Banca Lecchese, is a digital bank controlled since 2015 by BPL Holdco S.à.rl, an investment vehicle belonging to Oaktree Capital Management, a global investment manager specialized in alternative investment strategies, which among other things has 380 loans million to president Steven Zhang's Inter. Led by Paolo Fiorentino (in the photo), Banca Progetto has offices in Milan and Rome and a commercial network spread throughout the country. The institute specializes in services for small and medium-sized Italian businesses and for private customers, which it addresses with savings products such as deposit accounts, salary-backed loans for private and state employees, public officials and pensioners. It offers medium-long term financing and factoring services to SMEs. At the top of the institute, in addition to Fiorentino, there are the president Massimo Capuano and the vice president Mario Adario.
At the moment Banca Progetto has 900 members but the reference shareholder, as mentioned, is the vehicle BPL Holdco Sarl of the American Oaktree fund which owns a share equal to 99.824% of the share capital.
SOME NUMBERS FROM THE 2023 BUDGET
Banca Progetto closed the 2023 financial year with a positive net result of 71.9 million, an increase of 38.3% compared to that of 2022. The interest margin was positive for 260.1 million, which grew from 180.9 million from the previous year, thanks to interest income of 482.3 million (in 2022 it was 236.1 million) and interest expense of 222.2 million (in 2022 it was 55.2 million).
Last year, collections increased again – from 6,369 million at the end of 2022 to 8,098 million – as did loans. In particular, deposits went from 4,369 million to 5,348 million, including both those collected on the Italian market (2,210 million) and those on the markets of Germany, Spain and Holland (3,138 million). And again: new loans to businesses amounting to 2.8 billion (+4% on year), factoring volumes of 194 million, collection of 1.7 billion through the finalization of four securitization transactions with institutional investors, for a total balance at the end of the year equal to 2.4 billion. On the capital front, the consolidated CET1 ratio exceeded 17%. At the end of December the net equity, including the result for the period, stood at 285.5 million. As regards the tax on extra profits, the Progetto bank board at the end of November decided to allocate over 8.3 million to a non-distributable reserve.
THE LISTING HYPOTHESIS
Last February, CEO Fiorentino reported to the Bloomberg agency that the offer for the bank's listing would be launched in the second quarter of 2024. The CEO had said that the stock would be listed on the Star segment of Piazza Business and that the aim was to sell a stake of between 35% and 40%. Oaktree, therefore, would have remained the majority shareholder. Among those interested in the project are various institutional investors and pension funds. According to Il Sole 24 Ore, Stj Advisors was also working on the operation as financial advisor and Citigroup, Intesa Sanpaolo and Ubs as global coordinators.
It cannot be ruled out that the legal matter involving Banca Progetto may have had an impact on the step backwards.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/banca-progetto-stop-quotazione/ on Mon, 15 Apr 2024 05:52:34 +0000.