The Mps group presents the half-year report as at 30 June. The main change is the profit: it amounts to 289 million against a loss of 3,243 billion in the same period of 2017. The second quarter marks a profit of 109 million against a loss of 3,06 billion in the previous year and thus achieving the second consecutive quarterly profit. This was announced by the bank of Siena which confirmed "the recovery trend of commercial activity and the simultaneous improvement in credit quality".
Let's take a closer look at the data released by Mps. EBITDA was €250,8m (€280,4m), loan loss provisions dropped to just €108,8m (€4,3bn in Q2017 XNUMX).
Mps also announced the sale of 3,7 billion non-performing loans and 800 million UTP loans for a total of 4,5 billion. Like other banks, the Sienese group suffers the negative effect of the increase in the Btp-Bund spread on the Cet1 capital ratio, which drops to 13 per cent compared to 14,8% at the end of 2017, while the total capital ratio was 14,4, 15,0%, which compares with the value of 2017% recorded at the end of December XNUMX.
The interest margin grew by 6,4% in the second quarter due to the increase in volumes and higher income from securities; commissions essentially stable (-0,9% quarter-on-quarter) or operating costs up 1,5%; reductions expected in 2019 for the staff reduction maneuver to be implemented through the solidarity fund.
At the end of the half-year, Monte dei Paschi had loans to customers for 87 billion, of which 8,7 billion were net non-performing loans after the deconsolidation of the 24,1 billion bad loans sold following the maxi-securitisation backed by a Gacs guarantee completed during the half-year. The ratio of net non-performing loans to customer loans thus decreased from 14% in March to 9,9% at the end of June. Coverage of impaired loans decreased to 56% (68,8% in March) following the deconsolidation of the 24 billion NPL burden. Mps then reports a growth in loans to customers of 1,4 billion thanks to new mortgage disbursements. The bank continued to cut costs: operating costs for the half-year fell by 8,9% to 1.154 million, of which 734 million were personnel expenses, down 8,2% per year due to staff reductions.
Meanwhile, in the middle of the session, the Mps share dropped 4,2%, after having lost 4,9 percent yesterday. The title of the Sienese institute had started expeditiously before reversing course. The trend could be penalized by profit taking, considering that between the end of the last eighth and the first part of the current one, the share had achieved a strong recovery after the sales of the previous weeks. Furthermore, like the whole sector, the performance suffered from the sudden rise of the BTP-Bund spread in the 260 bps area (during the first part of the morning it had even reached 270 bps), with the re-emergence of the uncertainties linked to the government's moves to support growth in view of the approval of the Def in the autumn. And precisely the volatility that had characterized the spread in the April-June period led to a drop in Cet1 from 14,8% at the end of 2017 to 13% as at 30 June.
