It takes off in Piazza Affari Mps after the announcement that a stake, up to 15%, will be sold to "strategic counterparties" to reduce debt. The stock today rose by 8,61% to 0,3305 euro per share with strong trading: over 200 million shares more than two hours after the closing, for a counter value of 70 million euro. On the other hand, the market had already for some time begun to bet on movements around a substantial stake in the Foundation, pushing the stock up by 38,63% in the last month.
The fact remains that, with no small amount of suffering, too in Siena they had to surrender to the iron law of numbers. Or rather debts. And the Foundation, which has its home in Palazzo Sansedoni, had to make the historic and painful decision in Siena to drop below 50% of the MPS bank, the nerve center of power and economic resources for the entire Sienese territory which until before the crisis has guaranteed rich dividends (with which the Foundation finances community activities).
The good news is that there's no shortage of buyers to share control of the third largest Italian bank. Indeed, they showed up at the starting grid Hourglass by Claudio Sposito and other foreign funds already active on the market. Not to forget the reference that the Lex of the Financial Times dedicated to BNP Paribas, the Parisian bank that controls Bnl, considered the ideal partner for the internationalization of Rocca Salimbeni.
But strong candidate it seems Salvatore Mancuso's Equinox fund, former president of Banco di Sicilia, owned by Intesa Sanpaolo, the first shareholder with one third of the shares. Mancuso, the old fox of the banking world, who left the Banco di Sicilia after an epic clash with the then all-powerful Alessandro Profumo, has expressed his willingness to evaluate an operation on a 12% stake (which today is worth around 500 million). With what goals? Equinox, filtered from circles close to the group, has no intention of getting involved in management or even less of interfering in the game of succeeding Giuseppe Mussari. Quite different are the ambitions of Mancuso's design, for a quarter of a century, together with his blood brother Gaetano Micciché, trusted partner of the current minister Corrado Passera.
It is not difficult to connect Mancuso's interest in the Sienese dossier with the concerns of Passera (and of Giuseppe Guzzetti, president of Acvri as well as of the Cariplo Foundation) to find a system solution for a strategic institution for the entire credit system . Something that, in the context of a European game with no holds barred (just think of the diktat of the EBA on the capital increase for the institute), requires vision skills and alliances. Especially in Siena. It's far from obvious, too after the turning point of “Valentine's Day” that Banca Mps could escape the EBA's request to strengthen the capital, if the plan drawn up by the new general manager Fabrizio Viola were deemed insufficient. Original sin dates back to well before the mine called spread and the fall of the markets. It's called Antonveneta: a 9 billion acquisition that required a considerable economic effort at a time when the worst financial and then economic crisis since 29 was about to unfold.
Ma the Foundation made the numbers to four so as not to be diluted under the majority and today its debt with the banks has reached around 1 billion with MPS shares as collateral, which however have fallen by 90% in five years. So today, to resolve the debt issue, it is forced to liquidate a 15% package of Mps. "The Administrative Deputation of the Monte dei Paschi di Siena Foundation - reads the note issued yesterday - in the session of 14 February 2012, authorized the presentation of a plan to rebalance the financial position of the Entity to be proposed to the creditor banks as required by the agreements of standstill agreements signed in December 2011. As part of this plan, the sale, to strategic counterparties, of a share of the investment in the Transferee Bank up to a maximum of 15% of the capital was authorised, subject to authorization by the Ministry of 'Economy and Finance, as supervisory authority. The operation will be set up and executed in the appropriate technical times to optimize its economic and strategic value". The resources that will be collected will be used to halve the debt and then proceed with the restructuring of the remaining part.
