BREAKTHROUGH: MONCLER GIVE UP THE LISTING
Everything was ready for listing. There were the ok from Consob and the Italian Stock Exchange. But in the end Moncler, the company known for down jackets, based in Grenoble, but brought back to success by the very Italian Remo Ruffini, has given up on debuting on Piazza Affari. The group's shareholders have reached an agreement with the Eurazeo investment fund which will take 45% of the capital in exchange for 418 million euros. The operation should be finalized at the end of the third quarter of 2011. Chairman Ruffini will retain 32% of the capital, while the Carlyle fund will retain 17,8%. The listing process is formally suspended. Moncler, on the strength of an excellent performance, in line with that of the top players in the sector, is aiming for increasingly international growth. Meanwhile, the Prada roadshow kicks off today in Singapore and will end on the 17th on Wall Street, on the eve of the placement on the Hong Kong stock exchange on June 24th, immediately after the Milanese men's collections show. Prada has chosen the Asian market in search of greater value.
WEAK EQUIKS IN MAY FOR GREECE AND US DATA, ECONOMISTS THINK IT'S A PAUSE
It wasn't a good week for stock markets on both sides of the Atlantic, confirming the fact that the month of May would end as it had begun, marked by weakness. And even the launch of Asian lists today confirms the persistence of a certain weakness and the existence of widespread caution on the markets. Tokyo closed the session down by 0,89%. Fears for the US economy and the Greek crisis have brought stock markets to their knees. The agreement for the new tranche of aid to Greece has given a shot in the arm to the European stock exchanges opened on the Ascension bridge (Frankfurt, London and Milan), while those closed on Friday left behind four sessions to forget. In Paris, the Cac40 fell below 3.900 points for the first time since April. In the US, the weekly loss is in the order of at least 2% for all the major indices: the S&P 500 recorded the sharpest weekly drop since August and after five weeks of weakness it is at its lowest since March. The S&P 500 has retraced 4,7% from its April 29 highs. The cause is to be found in the macro data, all below expectations, especially the last two. The unemployment rate rose to 9,1% (no president since Roosevelt has been elected with a rate higher than 7,2%), the ISM manufacturing index fell to 53,3, returning to the level of twenty months ago and making perfect sense of the situation. There is still growth but very modest. Since April, the negative signals had become insistent with house prices returning to last year's lows, industrial production falling for the first time in ten months (also due to the post-earthquake in Japan) and the reduction of sales at Wal-Mart . But Wall Street began to perceive the economic risks with a certain delay. Other negative sessions may be possible and it is widely believed that the declines in prices are destined to continue for a few weeks, but analysts and institutional investors do not seem worried. They are rather cautious on fears of a new and prolonged economic slowdown and speak rather of a "soft patch", a momentary bout of weakness that will not block the recovery of the cycle. An inevitable pause, understandable in a phase of strong recovery and in the face of factors of uncertainty such as the earthquake in Japan or the price of crude oil constantly above 100 dollars, according to them. Not everyone is optimistic, doubters and pessimists are not lacking but they represent a minority, for others the US economy will pick up speed this quarter after the disappointing 1,8% increase in GDP recorded in the first quarter of 2011. However, whatever the rebound may be during the second half of the year, the target of 3% growth for this year and with it the hypothesis of any restrictive hypothesis by the Fed seems to be drifting away.
BANKS, THE CAPITAL INCREASES CONTINUE, TODAY IT'S THE TURN OF UBI
It's not exactly a good time to launch a capital increase for a bank. In general, the banking sector is under pressure on all stock exchanges: in Europe it lost 16% compared to the February highs and 17% on Wall Street. In Italy the capital increases and related moves have not improved the situation. Nonetheless, the operations continue. Intesa closes its five billion increase that started on May 23 next Friday, and Ubi is starting today. The first sign of the skepticism surrounding the fate of the Italian economy had come precisely from the downgrading of Intesa's rating by Moody's before the increase. At the origin of the rejection was the consideration that the objectives promised by Corrado Passera's industrial plan "were not compatible" with the prospects of the Italian economy up to 2013. The skepticism of the markets forced the institute to apply a discount of 24 % on the Terp (the theoretical price after the detachment of the option right) equal to 1,805 euro for the ordinary and 1,52 for the RNC. The final price was in line with other transactions in the sector but under normal conditions Intesa could have obtained a better price. The astral conjunction was not the most promising: two important shareholders (Credit Agricole and Tassara) will not subscribe to the operation and will sell the rights. The increase started with a disturbed sky and in fact the rights were heavily sold in the first two days, but in the last few sessions the stock recovered and on Friday it was above the previous increase levels for the first time in two weeks. Today it's Ubi's turn and this operation doesn't start under the best auspices either; the bank led by Victor Massiah slipped to the bottom of the major basket on Friday with a plunge of 5,36% to 4,992 euros after setting the price of shares at 3,808 euros that will be offered with the increase from around 1 billion euros. The subscription price was determined by applying a 22,4% discount with respect to the Terp of the shares calculated on the basis of the closing date of 2 June (5,27 euro). The newly issued shares will be offered in the ratio of 8 new shares for every 21 held. The capital increase ends on June 24th while the negotiation of the rights will be possible until June 17th.
