The stock market run carried out by Monte dei Paschi in the last few sessions thanks to return to profit highlighted by the accounts of the first quarter of 2018 stops in the worst way. The title sinks to Piazza Affari, with a theoretical drop of 10% (the shares are blocked in the volatility auction) which brings it below 3 euros. Despite this, last month's performance still marks +8%.
There are no economic-financial reasons behind the Mps crash - even if inevitable profit-taking after the rally must be considered - but political ones. In the last draft of the Government contract between Movimento 5 Stelle and Lega indeed figure a direct reference to the Sienese bank which the market did not like at all: «With reference to the Monte dei Paschi bank – we read in the paragraph Protection of savings – the State shareholder must provide for the redefinition of the mission and objectives of the credit institution from a service point of view". Words that inevitably cause uncertainty, sparking the fears of investors who in the last period seemed to have finally regained faith in the bank. The economist of the league, Claudio Borghi, took care of decoding them, who explained that MPS must not be sold to private individuals and that excess branches must not be closed because the bank must be kept public "as the country's assets". The reply of the Economy Minister, Pier Carlo Padoan, the architect of the rescue of Monte dei Paschi, was very harsh: "This destroys trust", pulling the savings of the Italians along with it".
We recall that the controlling shareholder of Monte dei Paschi is none other than the Ministry of Finance which, to date, owns a 68% share of the capital. The fear is therefore clear: the Stock Exchange wonders if the new Executive will really change course with respect to the support guaranteed up to now by the MEF to the recovery plan carried out by Morelli & Co., thanks to which the bank does not rule out the possibility of returning to profit as early as 2018, one year earlier than envisaged in the Plan. The doubts also concern the possibility of introducing gods changes at the top of the Tuscan institute and to make an about-face on the presence of the State in the capital of Rocca Salimbeni.
“I would never allow myself to talk about something I don't know, so what I've always said applies to this: that shareholders, and above all the most important one, are free to make all the reflections they deem appropriate on the governance of the company . We move forward, as you know we have a plan“. This is the comment of the managing director Marco Morelli. "The minimum objective of management and the bank is to obtain good results as quickly as possible", concluded the manager answering questions from journalists on the sidelines of the Officina Mps event dedicated to startups.
However, the collapse of Mps is accompanied by a sharp decline of other banks: the Ftse Italia index loses almost 2%, while the big names in the sector are affected by the sales on the FtseMib due to fears relating to the financial policy that the new government may follow. Heavy Ubi (-4,2%). Down also Unicredit (-2%) and Intesa Sanpaolo (-1,6%).
(Last update at 16.20 on May 17).
