In a volatile day for the whole price list, the titles of the Fonsai-Unipol galaxy end up on the roller coaster. Premafin collapses intraday by 7,2% to 0,2667 euro per share and then slightly slows down the fall to -5,48%. Instead, it accelerates upwards in the afternoon Fonsai + 2,2% after a move into negative territory. As well as Unipol which now gains 0,54%.
Time is running out but there are still many uncertainties. There is the issue of the price of the Premafin capital increase which must be decided by 16 April, next Monday, to arrive in good time for the filing of the report for the shareholders' meeting on 17 May. However, it is tied in double thread the question on the exchanges between Fonsai and Unipol, a knot that seems difficult to solve in speed also due to the distance of positions between the players in the field and which in Bologna they would prefer to postpone after the decision on the Premafin increase. “I only read the distances in the newspapers”, retorted Fonsai CEO Emanuele Erbetta, who specified on the exchanges: “We are still working and we are making progress”.
Already, in these hours the meetings between top management and advisors have multiplied to try to find the right balance. Yesterday Erbetta himself, together with the general manager Piergiorgio Peluso met the advisor Goldman Sachs at the headquarters of the investment bank in Milan. Summit again yesterday between Premafin and Unipol at the Banca Leonardo headquarters.
But it's not just a matter of technical details. The uncertainty also concerns the very feasibility of the operation, which has always presented itself as highly complex also due to the effects on the market (it would become the first pole in the non-life sector) and which turns the lights on the three competent authorities: Isvap, Consob and Antitrust. “We are studying, our role is limited to Antitrust profiles. It is a complex operation and by May we will assume indications. We will examine with attention, balance and severity to guarantee market competition”, commented today the president of the Antitrust, Giovanni Pitruzzella.
Consob is taking time on the takeover bid issue, a sore subject for small shareholders, who had to swallow the losses seasoned with the necessary capital increases together with dizzying remunerations of the managers, and who are now in the front row to scrutinize the Authority's moves. On the possible obligation of Unipol to take the takeover bid on Fonsai, "the commission will decide at the right time", said the chairman Giuseppe Vegas with reference to the possibility that the Commission may not consider Unipol's operation on Fonsai as a bailout, thus forcing the Bolognese group to launch the takeover bid.
Then there is Isvap which drew attention to its moves especially after the deputy general manager was heard by prosecutor Orsi as a person informed on the facts in relation to the investigation that the prosecutor is carrying out on the Ligresti galaxy. And it is precisely in the Isvap house that the voltage would be higher: according to what La Repubblica reports today, the Authority would be split over the green light for the creation of the maxi insurance pole due to doubts about some assets and liabilities.
