Meeting postponed, stock falling (-1,7% around 14 pm) and tension on the rise. The summary of the morning promises yet another storm in Siena where MPS shareholders are adjourning until tomorrow for the second call of the meeting on the three billion capital increase.
More than 50% of the capital was deposited but this morning a decisive percentage of shareholders did not register: the capital present in the room stopped at 49,3%, thus preventing the achievement of the quorum necessary for the first call to be held, i.e. the 50% plus one of the votes. However, all the major shareholders were present, including the Mps Foundation (the others are Unicoop Firenze, Axa, Aleotti). The stock reacted in swings hoping at first for the quorum. “We are serene, see you tomorrow morning. We have never stopped working our attitude has never changed. We are always open" said Antonella Mansi, president of Palazzo Sansedoni, engaged in the tenacious tug of war with the bank's top management on the timing of the recapitalization (which according to the Sienese institution should be postponed after May 2014) and determined to vote against the recapitalization in January proposed by the Profumo-Viola tandem. In the second call, it is sufficient to exceed one third of the share capital for the performance to take place, a percentage that the Foundation itself holds in its hands since it is a 33,5% shareholder. A weight that still allows it to make its voice heard on the bank's choices, since the capital increase, being an extraordinary operation, must be launched by two thirds of the present capital.
In the meantime, the bank has disseminated, at the request of Consob, the legal opinion drawn up by the jurist Piergaetano Marchetti that the Board of Directors had requested on the Foundation's proposal for a capital increase in the second quarter of 2014. (Negative) opinion which the Board of Directors had initially decided not to disseminate in order, according to rumors, not to exacerbate tempers with the institution. Opinion in which, among other things, mentions a conflict of interest on the issue between the Entity led by Antonella Mansi and the bank.
What will happen tomorrow? “I don't know, I'm not a witch”, Mansi replied ironically as he left the meeting. The outcome is extremely uncertain. On paper, there are three open scenarios: the increase in January, as requested by Profumo (who in a recent letter invited shareholders to participate in the meeting); the increase in June, according to the wishes of the Foundation, but the risk is that neither of the two options will pass.
The nationalization scenario always remains in the background. For the mayor of Siena, Bruno Valentini, nationalization "does not exist, the government cannot afford it since it cannot even find the money to cover the IMU". In Siena, after the local Confindustria has also entered the field, we are looking at a hoped-for intervention by the CDP through the Italian strategic fund. “And if this intervention is not possible – said Valentini as he left the meeting – because the law provides that the fund must invest only in profitable companies, the law must be changed. The Government brings out the character”. The city, tight around the survival of the Foundation, seems determined not to back down and move to direct confrontation with the top management of the bank. "If one mayor is made, another is made", launched the thrust Valentini, commenting on the possible resignation of Profumo in case of rejection of the recapitalization in January. Although he then added: "It would not be easy to replace a management of international value like the current one: one of equal or perhaps more value is needed".
