Banca Carige launches heavy accusations against the group Apollo. The Ligurian institute claims to have suffered an "aggression" from the fund, which allegedly "benefited from the gross negligence and the condescension of the administrative top” of the Bank on three occasions between autumn 2013 and March 2016: in the purchase of insurance assets; in the suddenly withdrawn binding offer on Creditis (consumer credit) and in the case of the non-performing loan purchase fund proposal.
This is what we read inwrit of summons presented to the Court of Genoa with which Banca Carige asks the former top management Cesare Castelbarco Albani, Piero Montani and the Apollo fund itself a total compensation of 1,25 billion. The document, revealed by Il Secolo XIX, is contained in the material available to the assembly in view of the vote on the request for liability action against Montani and Castelbarco
In particular, according to the reconstruction contained in the deed, Apollo would have “gave a primary causal contributor to the deterioration of the bank's liquidity situation” in the period between November 2015 and February 2016, i.e. immediately before submitting a proposal to the bank's board of directors to purchase non-performing loans at heavily discounted prices (about 17 cents per 1 euro in line with the write-down made on loans in that period from Etruria, Banca Marche, Carife and Carichieti) combined with a proposal to increase the bank's capital which (if accepted) would have led Apollo to be the controlling shareholder.
The anomalous absorption of liquidity would have occurred in particular between the end of November 2015 and the end of December 2015 when in a single month with "obviously concerted withdrawals" parties attributable to Apollo drained "about 446 million" of euro.
"Within a few weeks the liquidity of Carige rapidly began to decline until it reached the levels that the European Central Bank would have represented as worrying in the Draft decision of 19 February 2016 - the summons continues - Already at the end of December the bank's monthly liquidity ratio had collapsed to six months, almost halving, and the impact of the withdrawals of subjects attributable to the Apollo group on the loss of liquidity recorded in the period (931 million) can be estimated at a percentage close to 50%”.
These operations, the document continues, helped to raise an alarm bell about the bank's liquidity situation by the ECB Supervisory Authority which, in February 2016, suggested that the institute carefully evaluate Apollo's proposal for securing the institute. However, the Apollo project was rejected by Carige who had replaced the top management in the meantime.
Meanwhile, Consob asked Banca Carige for further information on the strategic plan approved by the institute, especially as regards the procedures for the capital increase up to 450 million, the deconsolidation of the non-performing portfolio for around 3,35 billion euro and the liability actions taken against the management.
Carige's Board of Directors replied to Consob supplementing the 2016 draft financial statements with the requested information. The Bank envisages a securitization of non-performing loans (non-performing loans, i.e. loans that will no longer be collected) for an amount of approximately 0,95 billion, currently in an "advanced stage of implementation" and the establishment of the new vehicle company to dispose of a further 2,4 approximately .XNUMX billion.
After the release of this news, this morning the Banca Carige stock on the Stock Exchange it loses 2,45%, to 0,255 euros.
