MONTI OFFERS BOT TO THE MARKETS (AND MERKEL) TODAY
A HEDGE FUND BUYS 5% OF UNICREDIT
“Europe will not have a shared responsibility for public debt as long as I live”. So said Angela Merkel sending back to the sender the proposals of Herman van Rompuy elaborated together with Mario Draghi. In other words, leave all hope you who are about to enter the Brussels summit: Italy and Spain will have to manage on their own.
Last night the matter was held up at the Paris summit between the finance ministers of France, Spain, Italy and Germany, an opportunity to increase the pressure on Berlin.
Il Prime Minister Mario Monti, speaking in the Chamber, had already replied to Merkel: "I am ready to stay beyond the limit set by the European Council and work until Sunday evening if necessary, so that when the market reopens, Monday 2 July, we present ourselves strengthened by a package for growth, from a vision for the future of integration, but also from satisfactory mechanisms to withstand market tensions”. In other words, to make the proposal prevail that the EFSF bailout fund become the instrument to intervene, if necessary, to buy government bonds of the countries under attack on the markets.
In this context, the Bel Paese takes the field again for an auction of government bonds, which Frau Angela's words have made even more complicated.
After the words of the Chancellor, in fact, the yield on the 5,99-year BTP jumped from 6,15% the night before to XNUMX%, the spread with the Bund widened to 465 basis points. The yield on the 10-year Spanish Bono rose to 6,79%. The auction round continues today with 9 billion six-monthly Bt, while tomorrow up to 5,5 billion Btp at 5 and 10 years will be offered.
Yesterday morning the auctions of Spanish and Italian government bonds recorded a sharp increase in yields. In particular, the Italian Treasury placed 3 billion Ctz over two years with a yield of 4,7% from 4,03% in May. The auction round continues tomorrow with 9 billion six-monthly Bt, while on Thursday up to 5,5 billion Btp at 5 and 10 years will be offered.
In Milan the FtseMib index lost 1,1%, the Madrid Stock Exchange fell by 1,3%, while London and Frankfurt finished with the indices tied and Paris suffered a slight decline of 0,3%.
The USA and Asia have distanced themselves from Europe.
Our Asian lists they start to close on the upside, breaking a negative spiral that had lasted for four days. In Tokyo the Nikkei index marks +0,33%, Hong Kong is much livelier +1,10%. The rebound is favored by US data and by the expectation of measures to support the economy coming from Beijing.
Wall Street, after a momentary drop linked to the tensions coming from Europe, it corrected its course upwards on the basis of the positive indications coming from the economy of the States. The S&P500 closes with a gain of 0,48%, Dow Jones +0,26%, the Nasdaq sle of 0,63%.
In April in the US, house prices calculated according to the S&P/Shiller index rose by 1,3%, better than the estimates which predicted a 0,5% increase. This is the third consecutive month of increases in US home prices. As of 16,00 from the June consumer confidence index, expected to fall to 63,5.
To report NewsCorp's leap which rises by 6,4%. Rupert Murdoch, owner of the company, has confirmed his intention to proceed with a spin-off of his publishing company, dividing assets, including The Wall Street Journal, into two different companies.
Returning to Business Square at the end of the session, the list of Milanese blue chips was largely marked by declines. Among the banks, Intesa -0,7%, Mediobanca -0,7%, Ubi is down 3,3%, Popolare Milano -2,6%.
MontePaschi it fell by 5,2%, despite the green light for the Tremonti bonds.
Unicredit fell by 2,4%. The Pamplona Global Financial Fund, aimed at hedge funds, has announced that it has increased its stake in Unicredit from 1,99% to 5,01% by buying 174,8 million shares through a complex derivatives transaction through Deutsche Bank which however specified that "it will not keep Unicredit shares even if Pamplona decides to repay the bank by delivering the shares". Pamplona, led by the financier Alexander Knaster, a Russian with a US passport, a major shareholder of Alpha Bank and a member of the Tnk-BP board of directors, thus rises to second place among the shareholders in Piazza Cordusio behind the Abu Dhabi fund. After the recent stock market crashes, 5% of Unicredit is worth about 700 million. The entire capitalization (14,5 billion) is slightly higher than the total of the last three capital increases (13,5 billion). And the stake in the hands of stable foreign shareholders is already 25%.
In Europe the best performing sector was the utilities sector, with the Stoxx index up 0,7%. Bank of America today released a report underlining that European utilities are undervalued and indicating Terna as one of the best stocks in the sector. Terna dropped by 0,9%. Enel closed up 0,3%, Bank of America raised its recommendation to "neutral" from "underperform". Acea rose by 4,9%.
Telecom Italia is on the rise +0,42% pending the green light for the sale of TiMedia -2,3%. Among the industrials, strong decrease of StM -5,2%, influenced by the profit warning of the German competitor Infineon -10%.
Fiat lost 2,8%, Finmeccanica it fell by 3,2%.
“Our decision will come as soon as possible but it doesn't just depend on us. We will do everything possible to ensure that the capital increase starts when it has been scheduled, obviously if everything is in order". That's what he says the president of Consob Giuseppe Vegas to a question on the green light for the Fonsai capital increase. And, above all, the exemption from the takeover bid for Milano Assicurazioni requested by Unipol. In the meantime, the CEO of Unipol Carlo Cimbri, interviewed by the Financial Times assures that "Unipol is far from Mediobanca". The Bolognese group "is independent now and will not change after the merger". From a financial point of view, then, the via Stalingrado manager expects to repay 250 million to Mediobanca in 3 years, with a new reduction of the debt of 100 million euros deriving from the sale of assets necessary to obtain the go-ahead from the Antitrust to the merger with Fonsai, Premafin and Milano Assicurazioni. These also include the sale of 1,1% of Generali in the hands of Fonsai.
Rcs MediaGroup announces that Rcs Libri has received from Madrigall SA, the parent company of the French publishing company Gallimard, the final binding offer for the purchase of 100% of Rcs Livres, the company that controls the Flammarion publishing group. RCS Libri intends to accept the offer upon conclusion of the envisaged consultation procedure with the union representatives of the Flammarion group. The enterprise value offered by Madrigall is 251 million euros. The financial benefit of the transaction is estimated at approximately 230 million. Based on the book values as at 31 December 2011, statutory and consolidated capital gains are estimated – gross of the tax effect – of approximately 121 and 88 million euros, respectively.
