Banca Carige collapses in Piazza Affari after Fitch's rating cut. At the opening, the Genoese bank's stock failed to make a price and then entered the volatility auction several times. At 11 am the shares were down by 6,12% at 0,0046 euros, after having touched an intraday low of -10,2%.
At the base of the thud is Fitch's decision to cut the Carige rating from B- to CCC* with negative outlook, level that excludes Carige from the investment grade category.
According to the US agency, "bankruptcy is considered a concrete possibility, given the difficulties that the bank would encounter in strengthening its capital". Not only that, these difficulties could push "the regulator" to intervene. Also weighing on Carige's future is "the changed market conditions" for Italian banks which could make the issue of the 2 million Tier 200 subordinated bond "complicated".
Fitch also highlighted that the bank, to date, does not meet Pillar 2 requirements in terms of assets. Another problem, according to the agency, is also the change at the management level, a situation that adds uncertainty about future strategies and also about the timing to implement a turnaround that allows to satisfy the authority's requests.
Immediate response from Banca Carige which peremptorily denies the possibility of going bankrupt and, with regard to the Cet1, underlined how the solvency of the institution is in line with the requirements set by the Supervisory Authority.
The Ligurian institute also underlines that the agency has not taken into account the progress made after the shareholders' meeting in terms of governance and financial support of shareholders and therefore reserves the right to evaluate Fitch's work.
"In acknowledging the downgrade and the content of the press release issued in these hours by the Fitch Ratings agency" wrote Banca Carige, underlining that it believed "it is necessary to specify that in the discussions with the Regulators no reference has ever been expressed to a possible possibility of failure".
Today, among other things, the board of directors meets in order to address some of the hottest dossiers, among which the possible sale of 380 million Utp to the US fund, Bain Capital, stands out, but the board, in the session, also expects information on the interlocutions that the institute has had yesterday with the exponents of the ECB Supervision.
