The suspicious promotions and the possible agreement between the Amici list and Investindustrial in view of the meeting on Saturday 22nd, as well as the free access to the institute's shareholders' register denied to the list of non-employee shareholders. Here are the hot dossiers that tonight will be examined by yet another hot board of Bpm. A meeting preceded yesterday by the long-distance duel between Andrea Bonomi and Matteo Arpe, the two strong personalities who are competing for the scene and the leadership in Bpm which yesterday suffered a sharp drop in Piazza Affari in line with the sector (a sharp rise instead in 'opening today: +3,3% in the morning)
"In our case we have no pact with any other list, on the contrary we are discussing with all the other lists". Word of Andrea Bonomi who convened a press meeting to clarify the relationship between the list of "his" Investindustrial and the list of Friends, or who, by Bonomi's own admission, invited the financier to take an interest in the institution of meda square.
"Nobody, neither us nor our lawyers, sees any kind of connection between us and the Friends in the fact that they were the first to contact us," says Bonomi, adding that he wants to meet the other lists again in the next few days. "I want to be a president of all." And, compared to his rival, Bonomi says: “Arpe has undoubted qualities. But Bpm doesn't need a tsunami”. If anything, of money. And Bonomi is ready to double the current investment of 150 million. In return, he is asking for two seats on the supervisory board, including the presidency.
The concern of the number one of Investindustrial depends on the letter that last Friday, October 14, Consob sent a letter in recent days to the Board of Directors and to the board of statutory auditors of Pop Milano (and for information to Bank of Italy) asking the two bodies to present "their own considerations regarding the possible existence of links between the lists presented". With particular reference to "the relevance or otherwise - for the purposes of attributing the reserve of seats to the lists presented by collective investment undertakings - of any links between these lists and the one that came first by number of votes". In summary, there is the suspicion of an agreement (denied by Bonomi) for the joint control of the supervisory board: the two of Investindustrial could be added to the eleven directors on the majority list.
Meanwhile Matteo Arpe's offensive continues, the ram of the alternative list, supported by Fabi and Fiba Cisl. The list of friends of the Banca Popolare di Milano includes representatives of groups that own some large "problem" loans, Arpe underlined. "In the list of Friends of Bpm - he said - there are members of a group that owns some large problematic loans, people who hold positions in the construction group at the supervisory board level". The allusion to the Ligresti group is transparent.
In his road show Arpe also focused on his program for the relaunch of Bpm, starting with the Tremonti bond issue which will be difficult to repay with a small capital increase. “With the plan, we first thought of repaying the Tremonti bonds, now it seems to me that we no longer want to do it. I think it's best to leave without a ballast and then return them. Holding the Tremonti Bonds to reduce the capital increase would mean reducing the ability to provide credit. We should keep everything still and then repay them in a year and a half,” Arpe told the BPM employee assembly in Rome via video conference.
The former CEO of Capitalia added that for Popolare di Milano “I don't see extraordinary operations, in the sense of mergers. They are there for all to see, they only lead to reductions in personnel ". "Italian banks are in a difficult situation that will last for years to come," he concluded.
