On Friday 28 August, Banca Popolare di Vicenza and Veneto Banca will publish the half-yearly accounts. In both cases, significant losses are expected and the top management of the two companies should give the go-ahead for capital increases that will allow them to comply with the accounting obligations imposed by the European Central Bank.
In detail, the People of Vicenza – to respond to Frankfurt's requests – it increased credit coverage and goodwill write-downs, as already happened at the end of 2014, when a redundancy of over 750 million was communicated. A prudential choice adopted by the new CEO and managing director Francesco Iorio, who arrived at Ubi at the end of May and was called upon to relaunch the Bank, which now has to transform itself from a cooperative into a joint-stock company, to then be listed on the Stock Exchange in the first quarter of 2016. Friday's Board of Directors should then launch a capital increase of 1,5-2 and a half billion euros.
As for Veneto Bank, the provisions on receivables and the revisions of goodwill will be increased. The forthcoming recapitalization will be of 500-800 million euros and the institute should convene the transformation assembly into a joint stock company for October-November. At that point, the next step is likely to be a merger with another bank. The most quoted partner is Banca Popolare dell'Emilia Romagna.
