MPS, RESURRECTION IN THE STOCK EXCHANGE. MONTI: "THE PD HAS TO DO". FIRST ROUND IN ASSEMBLY BETWEEN GRILLO AND PERFUME
The longest day in the more than 500-year history of Monte Paschi opens with a note of comfort: right from the start of the Stock Exchange session, for the first time in the black week, purchase orders on Rocca Salimbeni flock: already before At 9 o'clock the MPS stock, which in 3 sessions lost 20% of its capitalization, started to run again with an increase of 5,02% to 0,24 euro in the first trading. At 10 am, the stock was suspended due to an excessive increase when it was trading at a price of 0,25 euros, 7% more than on the eve.
At the same time, speaking to the microphones of Radio Uno, Prime Minister Mario Monti underlined that "Italian savers whose nervous system has also been put to the test by rumors and electoral bullfighting", must "know that Italian banks have been the whole financial crisis among the most solid and if we talk about Mps it is only because the European authorities have asked to increase the capitalization of Mps, and only of Mps”. Furthermore, the resources for the "Monti bonds are not money that goes from the State to MPS to stay there, but that will be repaid and with a high interest rate, and they are 2 billion on a net basis". Of the total 3,9 billion, he wanted to clarify, 1,9 are "repayments of previous Tremonti bonds".
But it will take more than a stream of cover-ups or technical explanations to bring the situation under control. The case, by now, involves on an institutional level. the responsibilities of Consob and Banca d'Italia as well as the government of today and yesterday. On the political level, then, the relationship between the "Siamese brothers" of the Sienese bank and local politics, which has always been the exclusive pertinence of the Democratic Party, is in the sights. Monti himself added fuel to the fire, emphasizing that "the PD has something to do with this affair" because "it has always had a lot of influence over the bank and political life" in Siena. "I - however added the leader of the Civic Choice - are not here to attack Bersani, but the historical phenomenon of the mingling of banking and politics that must be further eradicated" because it is an "ugly beast". Then, he concluded, I'll leave it to the politicians” to “point fingers” at each other.
And then, there's the crowd of shareholders gathered for the meeting. Starting with the shareholders/employees who, at the invitation of top management, years ago invested part of their savings (and severance pay) in shares that today are worth only a fraction of the investment. Beppe Grillo's tirade is also addressed to them: "What they did to the Monte dei Paschi bank is worse than Tangentopoli, Craxi and Parmalat together, this is the damage they have done". So said the leader of the Five Star movement as he arrived at the MPS assembly hall, greeted by a crowd of journalists, cameramen and photographers. "They have made a bank out of a party and a party out of a bank," he added as he entered the assembly hall. "Mussari is incompetent, they put him there to make linoleum: they are selling a 1500 bank on the market", he concluded.
The current summit of the Monte, led by Alessandro Profumo, is awaiting this and other disputes at a standstill. The first sparks have already been there. Speaking to the shareholders, the leader of the 5-star movement raised the alarm of "a hole in the accounts of 14 billion euros, an investigation must be opened immediately". Profumo immediately replied: “Tell me where does this indication come from? There is no hole here”.
On the other hand, the president's line was anticipated by the note issued yesterday evening, after the conclusion of the board where, according to Giovanni Alberto Aleotti, director and member of the Bank's executive committee as well as one of the major private shareholders of the institute , “doesn't have any worries”. Upon leaving the council that lasted more than five hours, another councilor indicated: "We only spent half an hour on problems and the rest of the time on other things."
The situation of Mps is "completely under control" is the thesis of the board, which finds a first comfort in the recovery of the share. Despite "the continuous utterances by numerous public figures and political exponents aimed at exploiting the events" and "the lightness with which the issue of recapitalization of the Bank is treated". The request for the Monti bonds "is mainly due to the sovereign debt crisis which has reduced the value of the Italian government securities portfolio held by the bank, and only to a lesser extent also to the verification activity still in progress on the Alexandria, Santorini and Nota Italy that everyone is talking about”. Operations, moreover, already known for months: already in May Report had talked extensively about Alexandria in a broadcast that had elicited the usual indignant outcry from theestablishment of Siena, as usual engaged in an eternal race between politics, finance and power in the wild. Already at the end of November the bank had announced a negative impact of around 500 million from the closure of some operations, the same ones that are now in the public pillory. So what is the novelty that has triggered the reactions on and off the stock market?
From a financial point of view, the match no longer concerns the old management, now dead and gone, of Giuseppe Mussari and Antonio Vigni. If anything, one year after taking office, it is important to understand the bank's effective ability to carry out a difficult turnaround. From this point of view, the affair, with its silences, delays and omissions, has certainly undermined the trust in the new management. Also because the Monti bonds, loans to and not gifts financed by the IMU, are a heavy mortgage on the institution's future profitability: out of 3,9 billion Monti bonds at a rate of 9% in the first year (then growing), the bank will pay the Treasury, with priority over all other stakeholders, at least 350 million annually non-tax deductible. A drain that makes it necessary to resort to the market when possible. But who wants or can buy shares in Mps? In this situation it will not be easy to organize a "system solution" involving Italian public and private capital. One can think of a Bpm-style turnaround, now firmly in the hands of Andrea Bonomi of Investindustrial, who has launched a rapid and machete restructuring, regardless of the political balance of Piazza Meda. Or at the entrance, in an important position, of international shareholders. In any case, the traumas in Siena have just begun.
