Banca Carige closes 2016 in deep red. The Genoese institute recorded a negative net result for 297,3 million, up on the red from 127,6 million the year before, due to a series of provisions and extraordinary items.
Non-performing loans increased by 510 million, settling at 7,3 billion euro, with coverage increasing to 45,4% from the previous 42,9%. The net portfolio remained substantially unchanged at around 4 billion (3,9 billion at the end of 2015) in relation to the increase in loan loss provisions (+397,3 million), which include the results of the verification conducted by the ECB in the first part of the 2016.
Furthermore, the Genoese institute is working on updating the strategic plan, which will be approved by the Board of Directors on 28 February. The CEO Guido Bastianini, on the other hand, declared that the sale of the first tranche of NPLs (approximately 1,1 billion euro) via securitization backed by a public guarantee from Gacs will probably not be completed before April. According to Il Sole 24 Ore, there are at least 2 billion impaired loans that the bank intends to sell by 2017. Furthermore, according to the newspaper, Carige is also considering the possibility of a capital increase.
After a downward opening, the stock of the Genoese institute retraced, traveling just above parity, +0,15%. In the same minutes, the Italian stock market gains 0,4%.
