Intesa Sanpaolo no longer intends to enter the capital of Alitalia but is willing to intervene as a lender on condition that there is a valid business plan. This is what the CEO of the Milanese institute said Carlo Messina in an interview with the Borsen-Zeitung. “When we acquired about 13% of Alitalia shares years ago – he said in response to a question about their possible new involvement in the shareholding structure of the national airline – we were convinced of the new business plan. The Etihad business plan could not be implemented. In the meantime we have completely devalued the stake in Alitalia. We are not available to intervene as a shareholder in the 'new' Alitalia, but as lenders of Alitalia, with a valid business and recovery plan. We are bankers and our core business is not in industrial holdings”.
Regarding the current state of the Italian banking system, Messina replied that it is possible "to see a clear recovery". “The banking system has returned to pre-crisis levels – he explained – We are seeing a significant recovery among our customers, both as regards businesses and households”. Regarding the group's room for improvement over its already strong first-quarter results, Messina said he "sees great potential for growth in fee income." “We rank in Europe immediately after UBS and Credit Suisse – she underlined-. Even in the cost/income ratio we are at 48% and second only to Santander. The Spaniards have the advantage of the low cost of their investments in South America”.
The CEO of Intesa Sanpaolo also gave an interview to the French newspaper Le Echos, in which he spoke again about the banking system. A bad bank now to definitively solve the Npl problem "would be useless"Messina said. “What is needed – she explained – is for each bank to strengthen its internal structure for the collection of non-performing loans. If a European 'bad bank' was ever to be created, it should have been five years ago. Today, honestly, it would be too late and, among other things, it would incite banks not to make the investments necessary to introduce the necessary structures to collect NPLs. Regarding the Atlante Fund, Messina believes that it "had the advantage of averting the systemic risk weighing on the country's banking sector".
However, Messina believes that the focus of the fund's activities should have been NPLs and not capital increases. “I have always thought – he specified – that the Atlante fund should invest much more in the non-performing loans dossier and not also concentrate on the capital increase of banks in difficulty. One should have insisted on the cause of their difficulties which was, precisely, the mass of bad debts which, after their sale, caused a need for recapitalization. The Atlante fund was a onerous factor for the banking system, but it was the price to pay for its stability”.
