"The partnership with Credit Agricole was born as a commercial partnership in a specific sector and promises to be open to other areas of collaboration and could lead to an overall potential partnership". This was stated by the CEO of Credito Valtellinese, Mauro Selvetti, during the conference call with analysts on the accounts for the first half of 2018, answering a question on a possible M&A scenario in the world of Italian credit.
But the collaboration with Credit Agricole, continues Selvetti, does not close the door to a possible interest on the part of other institutions: "As we are a public company, this thing does not exclude, it does not constitute a constraint when there is some other relevant market".
In reality, Creval must guard against the offensive unleashed by Denis Dumont, the French shareholder who has 5,8% and who has asked for the shareholders' meeting to be convened to replace the current board of directors. Dumont has no intention of giving up in the face of the Creval-Agricole defensive move and calls the funds to battle.
Meanwhile, Credito Valtellinese archives the first half-year with a return to profit. The institute closed the January-June period with a net profit of 800 thousand euros, compared to a loss of 195 million in the same period of 2017 and a loss of 30 million in the first quarter of 2018.
Operating income decreased by 10% to 341 million, with interest margin at 179 million (-10%) and net fees and commissions at 139,4 million (-2%). Operating costs increased by 20%, which were affected by extraordinary personnel costs of 63,5 million relating to the redundancy plan. The cost/income ratio jumped to 90% as a result.
During the semester, underlined the CEO Mauro Selvetti, “the bank's turnaround process can be considered concluded. The actions implemented, in line with the provisions of the 2018-2020 business plan approved last November - he added - have made it possible to achieve important objectives in terms of risk profile reduction and improvement of operating efficiency which will allow in the second semester of the year to focus the bank solely on recovering sustainable profitability in the medium-long term”.
As for capital solidity, the fully loaded pro forma Cet1 is at 11,2% (from 10,9% at the end of March). Credit quality improves: the ratio of gross non-performing loans to total loans fell to 11,2% from 21,7% at the end of 2017. This is, the institute underlines, the lowest level since December 2011.
