The Milan Stock Exchange takes a breather after yesterday's collapse and gains more than 1%. Banca Carige imitates it, rising by 15,38% to 0,0015 euros. Yesterday's crash (-18,75%) therefore seems to have been overcome thanks to the press rumors circulated today, December 28, relating to the now famous 400 million euro capital increase that the bank should, or rather should have, launched in scope of the capital strengthening plan approved in the recent past.
According to rumors, the European Central Bank is in fact trying to push towards the realization of the recapitalization after the non-approval arrived in the context of the extraordinary shareholders' meeting of last December 22nd. In fact, at that juncture, Malacalza Investimenti, Carige's main shareholder, prevented the go-ahead for the capital strengthening operation, abstaining during the vote.
The price for this decision was paid by the stock which, after the break for the Christmas holidays, reacted by realizing a sharp fall (-18,7% as mentioned) which brought the red from the beginning of the year to -82,84% .
In this context, the top management of Carige, the president Pietro Modiano and the managing director Fabio Innocenzi, and the sons of Vittorio Malacalza, Davide and Mattia, had a number of technical meetings in Frankfurt on 27 December with representatives of the ECB. In particular, meetings were held with Ramon Quintana, general manager of the division in charge of Carige's supervision. According to what has been leaked, the ECB wants the Ligurian bank's capital increase to be done and done as soon as possible to meet the conditions imposed by the central bank itself for the bailout.
We recall that, the day before the meeting (therefore 21 December), the European Central Bank had given the go-ahead for the capital strengthening maneuver (Tier 2 issue plus capital increase) and the extension to 31 December 2019 of the deadline for compliance with capital requirements.
