THE ANTITRUST AND ISVAP SAY YES TO THE FONSAI INCREASE
39% DISCOUNT, THE COMPANY WILL SEND 1% TO GENERALI
The conditions of the Fonsai capital increase, approved in the board which met late into the night, will be made public before the start of this morning's session. The company, however, received both the green light from Isvap and that from the Antitrust after the stakes limiting Unicredit's future influence with regard to Fonsai's stake in Mediobanca were reaffirmed (the three directors appointed by Unicredit did not will participate in the decisions on Piazzetta Cuccia) and with regard to Generali (Lionella Ligreti, member of the Mediobanca board of directors on behalf of Fonsai, will not participate in the decisions on the Trieste company). It is also envisaged that Fonsai itself will sell the approximately 1% stake in Generali itself. The "discount" on the newly issued shares of the Ligresti group company will be 39%, that on the shares of the subsidiary Milan of 37%.
USA, SLOW DOWN THE RECOVERY. RATES STILL FOR AN EXTENDED PERIOD
BERNANKE STOP PURCHASES OF T-BOND. THE “QE3” ONLY IN AUTUMN
The recovery goes on but slowly, much slower than expected. Moreover, the labor market weakened compared to April, on the occasion of the previous FOMC meeting. Furthermore, after the conclusion of the central bank meeting, the Fed revised its growth forecasts downwards (+2,7% GDP against 2,9%, only 3,3% in 2012 against 3,7%) while inflation seems set to remain higher than estimated in April: 1,5% (against 1,3%) for “core” inflation, excluding food and energy. The unemployed, in turn, will not fall below 8,9% this year and 8,2% in 2012, the election year.
Faced with this diagnosis, Ben Bernanke announced this strategy: the purchases in the context of Quantitative easing will cease, but the central bank will keep the 2.832 billion securities it has at home on deposit. Not only that: the interest on this immense stock of financial paper will be reinvested in the T bonds that come due. Meanwhile, for an “extended period” rates will remain close to zero. There will still be 2 or 3 Fed meetings before decreeing the end of the extended period of low interest rates. But the scenario could change if economic growth is still unsatisfactory”, said Ben Bernanke, president of the Fed, in response to a question on the prospects for monetary policy interest rates still anchored between 0% and 0,25%.
In short, the crisis still imposes the need for an extremely accommodating monetary policy, but the tensions on prices, the real mid-year novelty, require Bernanke to be less audacious. In a twitter released in the morning, Bill Gross, who heads the management of Pimco (the most important bond fund in the world) said he expects the reopening of a third round of Quantitative Easing for next August, on the occasion of the summit of Governors of Jackson Hole. The problem is establishing what form QE 3 will take. This time, however, the maneuver should move from the objective of setting an insurmountable ceiling on bond yields.
WALL STREET SLOWS DOWN AFTER BERNANKE'S WORDS
ASIA IN FLEXIBILITY EXCEPT TOKYO. DOLLAR RECOVERY
After the words of Ben Bernanke, who decreed the end of Quantitative easing, US price lists have taken the downward path. The Dow Jones lost about 0,6%, as well as the S&P which during the day had come to gain 0,4% and the Nasdaq (-0,67%).
Since last August 27, when the Fed chairman in Jackson Hole had anticipated the launch of a second round of interventions on the markets, the S&P 500 has scored a rise of 24 percent.
Towards the end of the day, however, today, Tokyo gained (+1,79%) while both Hong Kong (-0,79%) and Seoul and Australia (-0,5%) are down. Rebounds in the final Shanghai (+0.%). The dollar is recovering against the euro: 1,4309 in Tokyo.
CONTRASTED SESSION IN MILAN LOOKING AT FED AND ATHENS
THE SPREAD AMONG BTPE BUND WIDES TO 194 BASIS POINTS
The Milan Stock Exchange closed a mixed session slightly down, with investors preferring a cautious attitude due to the uncertainty linked to the Greek crisis and awaiting the words of the Fed chairman, Ben Bernanke. The Federal Reserve's interest rate decision came at 18,30 pm Italian time with the confirmation, as expected, of the dollar reference rate at an all-time low of 0,25%.
On the fixed income market, the yield spread between the German Bund and our ten-year BTP widened to 194 basis points, from 185 yesterday.
GREECE, FIRST Yes "VOLUNTEERS" OF THE EUROPEAN BANKS
SUCCESS FOR THE ESFS ISSUE FOR PORTUGAL
In the aftermath of the Greek Parliament's narrow vote of confidence (155 yes against 143 no) in the Papandreu government and a week after the Franco-German summit which decided to involve private creditors on a voluntary basis in the restructuring of the Greek debt, the governments of France and Germany have already begun to test the waters. The German Finance Ministry has invited Greek-exposed banks and insurers to Frankfurt today for a series of talks at working group level. According to rumors, the summit was attended by Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank, Allianz, Munich Re, Hvb, Lbbw, WestLb, Hsh, Dz Bank and Deka –
Also in France, the association that brings together insurance companies, the Ffsa, has announced that its manager Bernard Spitz has been summoned to the Ministry of Finance to discuss the Greek situation. Another source cited by the Wall Street Journal said that the heads of the major French banks have held talks with the government on extending their loans to Athens, which do not expect immediate decisions. The negotiation would still be at an early stage.
According to government sources, Italian banks are also willing to do their part by renewing the Greek government bonds they hold in their portfolios at maturity. The Treasury is in contact with some of the main Italian credit institutions who would be ready to make a financial contribution on a voluntary basis to save Greece from bankruptcy. However, the Italian banking system is not among the most exposed to Athens.
According to BIS data, taken from The Wall Street Journal, the most exposed country is France with 56,7 billion, well ahead of Germany (33,97 billion) But Berlin's exposure is aimed at government bonds (22,65 ) more than Paris (only 14 billion).
Good news for Portugal. The European Financial Stability Facility has launched a five-year euro 3 billion bond issue at an issue spread fixed at mid swap plus 6 basis points (0,06%) with a yield for the EFSF of 2,825% . In less than two hours, there was demand in excess of 7 billion from about 70 investors. The origin of investors is always diversified, strong demand from Asia with 550 million euros invested by the Japanese finance ministry. The funds will be disbursed to Portugal on June 29 (based on a request of around 2,2 billion from the Lisbon government).
THE RICH ARCHIVE THE CRISIS: MORE MILLIONARIES THAN IN 2007
USA STILL IN LEAD, ASIA SURPASSES EUROPE
At least the rich have overcome the crisis. At the end of 2010, according to the usual analysis by Merill Lynch Cap Gemini, the capital of those who have at least one million dollars to invest in stock and bond lists amounted to 42.700 billion against 40.700 in 2007. This leap was favored by rally of world stock exchanges in the last twelve months (+18%). In the ranking of the Scrooge the United States are still in the lead: 3,4 million millionaires against 3,3 in Asia and 3,1 in Europe The super rich Americans are six times more numerous than the 535 Chinese millionaires.
INTESA SELLS THE REMAINING 25% OF FINDOMESTIC TO BNP
RECEIPT OF 629 MLO. CORE TIER 1 RISES BY 0,11 BP
Intesa Sanpaolo and BNP Paribas have signed an agreement for the sale of the remaining 25% of the share capital of Findomestic held by Intesa Sanpaolo - through the subsidiary Banca CR Firenze - to the BNP Paribas Group, for a consideration of 629 million euro.
The closing of the transaction, which is not subject to regulatory approval, is expected by the end of this week. The sale leads to a positive impact for the Intesa Sanpaolo Group in the second quarter of 2011 on the consolidated net profit of approximately 130 million euro and on the Core Tier 1 capital ratio of approximately 11 basis points.
In the meantime, the capital increase of 5 billion euro approved by the Extraordinary Shareholders' Meeting of 10 May 2011 was concluded with full subscription. 24,857% was subscribed by the following foundations: Compagnia di San Paolo, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Padova and Rovigo, Cariplo Foundation, Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze, CR Foundation in Bologna, Cassa di Risparmio di Udine and Pordenone Foundation, Cassa di Risparmio della Spezia Foundation, Cassa di Risparmio di Gorizia Foundation, Cassa di Risparmio di Forlì Foundation, Cassa Foundation savings from Pistoia and Pescia.
BPM, DEBENEDETTI OUT. PONZELLINI: I WILL NEVER RESIGN
LA TARANTOLA (BANKITALIA) INSISTS: MORE DELEGATIONS AND NEW LAW
"You can exclude them." Thus the president of the Banca Popolare di Milano, Massimo Ponzellini, closes the door to the hypothesis of his resignation in case, next Saturday, the shareholders' meeting should reject the increase in powers proposed by the board of directors. After Franco Debenedetti announced his farewell to the board of directors in case of rejection of the increase in powers, Ponzellini underlined that "everyone is free, I am free too". However, Ponzellini foresees that "everything will go well" at the meeting, explaining that "the choice made by the meeting will by definition be the best". Then Ponzellini, in reply to those who asked him to comment on the hypotheses of placing the bank under receivership, declared "the bank is very solid". Ponzellini stressed that Bpm has not received "any offer" for mergers or combinations.
Meanwhile, the Amici della Bpm association has declared that it is against the increase in proxies (from 3 to 5) as requested by the Bank of Italy. The indication of via Nazionale was reiterated yesterday in Parliament by the head of Supervision, Anna Maria Tarantola who stressed the need for the launch of a new law to update the Popolari regime. And finally, the "Corriere" reports that the judicial investigations into the placement of the convertible bond and other structured bonds could have criminal implications
LAZIO DOUBLES: IN THE LAST 12 MONTHS +100%
BUT LOTITO WARNNS: I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT IT
"In relation to the trend recorded by the share in the last few sessions and at the request of the Authorities, it should be noted that the Company is not aware of any elements that could justify this trend". This is the meager press release issued by the Capitoline club after the umpteenth leap forward in shares (+6,6%) which brought the gain in the last twelve months to 100%.
Also yesterday Juventus, which invested 37 million for the redemption of the contract of Matri, Quagliarella, Pepe and Motta recorded a drop of 0,70%.
