While awaiting the new industrial plan, which was examined yesterday in the guidelines and which should be dismissed by the board on January 30th, the Popular Bank of Bari under the guidance of the new CEO Vincenzo De Bustis and with the help of the advisor Rothschild, he is defining the road map to get out of the corner.
The cornerstones of the recovery and revitalization action are essentially three: 1) the restructuring plan; 2) capital strengthening; 3) the partnership.
On the first point, the plan of the majority Southern bank imagine a profound review of the business model in order to strengthen the profitability of the most profitable assets, to consolidate the roots in the territory that invests a large part of the southern regions and to ensure "the liquidity of the shares and their real value". But the plan also aims to isolate non-performing loans, probably in a bad bank, and to push the accelerator on digitalisation, perhaps through the establishment of a dedicated digital bank which favors the modernization of the group.
As for the capital strengthening, which should be around 200-300 million euros, a capital increase is excluded while the Bank is moving towards the issue of a subordinated bond for institutional investors, with which surveys are underway in an attempt to contain returns .
Finally, an official press release from the Bank puts the dots on the "i" on possible mergers, excluding, at least in an initial phase, the superholding in the Centre-South, and specifying that "any merger hypothesis" will have to take place "within the system of banks Popular" but "will only respond to a level playing field principle among the participants in the project, in respect of both the Shareholders and the peculiarities of their banks".
In other words, the partnership with another popular bank it is possible and it is on the radar of the Popolare di Bari but it will have to take place on an equal footing. Next Wednesday - at least on an industrial level - the curtain will rise.
