Mps rises by 1,36% (Ftse Mib+0,20%) following the presentation of the industrial plan for 2013-2017 which envisages a radical transformation of the industrial model and a return to profit in 2015. After the go-ahead from the European Commission, Rocca Salimbeni's board of directors gave the green light to the plan yesterday and lifted the veil on the details of the bank's path in the coming years, after the guidelines had been approved at the beginning of October.
The plan provides for "a radical transformation of the way of banking" and anticipates "a change taking place in the banking sector that will change the group's income statement and business model". In addition to substantial cost reduction work, the bank has implemented a series of initiatives on the revenue front which pass through an industrial transformation of the bank centered on a new distribution model (more accessible to customers and lower cost for the bank, with fewer branches) and more intermediated products and fewer assets on the balance sheet (plus distribution agreements with third parties such as consumer credit and leasing and bancassurance but also minibonds).
Translated into USEFULL, in 2017 MPS will drop to 2.200 branches from 2.750, to 23 employees from 31, it will have a cost/income ratio of 50% from 66%, 10% of digital customers from the current 1%. In terms of employment, the aim is for fewer people but more incisive from a commercial point of view: the turnover per resource will go from 165 to 225 euros. The aim is then to increase the net interest income by 390 million compared to the nine months of 2013; an improvement in fees of €767 million compared to 2012; and a growth in the cost of credit which should settle at 90 basis points. A path that will lead to management expectations to 900 million profits in 2017. Among the initiatives also emerged the disposal of MPS Banque, the French subsidiary which operates in the main cities beyond the Alps such as Paris, Marseilles, Nice and Lyons, but Mps Belgium and the New York branch are also for sale.
The first turning point will come in the coming months with the capital increase launched during the week by the bank (and requested by Brussels by 2014, to repay the Monti bonds) which, Fabrizio Viola confirmed in yesterday's conference call, will be held at the beginning of 2014. And on Foundation (33.3% main shareholder), disagreeing on the timing of the increase and grappling with a delicate issue on his debt exposure, said: "It is my personal belief that the MPS Foundation will solve the problem, it will remain a stable and strategic shareholder and will continue to invest in our bank”. Just yesterday, Palazzo Sansedoni met with the pool of creditor banks to address the knot linked to the repayment of the remaining 350 million debt, also in light of the fact that the shareholders' meeting called by MPS to resolve on the increase is around the corner, at the end December (27, 28 or 30). But the president Antonella Mansi has not yet dissolved the reservations on the operation. Yesterday the mayor of Siena, Bruno Valentini, who after the go-ahead for the increase in the MPS board of directors had contested the timing, spoke on the employment issue during a question to the city council: "The issue of how the bank manages the own staff is still open. No Italian entrepreneur must be allowed to unload his deficits, his past mistakes, the company's incapacity onto the workers”.
