Bpm bank start a project for valorisation of the e-money business and the investors of Piazza Affari appreciate it. In a sluggish morning for the Ftse Mib (-0,1%), the stock gains 1,1 percent at 4,065 euros per share, achieving one of the best performances among the blue chips.
Banco Bpm: the details of the project to enhance the e-money business
“The enhancement project is aimed at definition of a potential partnership with a primary market operator that will have both Merchant Acquiring and POS management as well as Issuing and distributing payment cards as their object”, Banco Bpm announced after the ok from the board of directors announced this morning. It is no coincidence that press rumors that have already circulated in recent weeks indicated among the potential interested parties nexi (+1,2% on the Stock Exchange), Worldline and Bcc Pay.
According to the bank, the overall value of the business in terms of Npv (net present value) could exceed 2 billion, "taking into account both the upfront components and those connected to the current value of running commissions - over 140 million euros pre-tax in 2022 - as well as future growth options", underlines Banco Bpm.
Last year the monica business generated transactions and withdrawals for 53 billion euros, with an increase of 11% year on year, counting on a base of 140 thousand Pos and 4,4 million payment cards.
The bank also reports that, the guidelines of the partnership will be the signing of a long-term exclusive distribution agreement which includes the issuing and merchant acquiring businesses, the preservation of the reference running commission levels, the collection of an upfront share involving benefits also in terms of capital and the forecast of mechanisms aimed at allowing the Bank to further extract value from prospective growth.
The company's goal is to locate the potential partner by the first half of 2023.
The judgment of Equita and Intermonte
“Although the details are not known, Banco Bpm's valorisation of the e-money business would be positive, allowing, among other things, to further strengthen the capital position of the bank”, say the analysts of Equity.
Those of Intermonte instead they recalled that, as mentioned, the net recurring commissions of the payments business were around 140 million in 2022 and one of the central points of the partnership is precisely to keep them at this level, in addition to a long-term exclusivity agreement and the introduction of mechanisms that would allow Banco to extract further value from the future growth of the business. “We expect the partnership to predict the upfront payment for the exclusivity – say the analysts – and which should bring out a capital gain (24/30 basis points as a conservative estimate) according to the cash quota that will be paid by the payment player for the partnership”.
