"I want to express my sincere appreciation for the president of the Mps Foundation Gabriello Mancini because in these 15 months a great relationship of transparency, comparison and respect has been established". Alessandro Profumo thus pays homage to the president of the Mps Foundation, who leaves the scene with dignity but with an embarrassing record, from the Guinness Book of Records: the old Monte Paschi, born in 1472, had held up with glory and brilliant results after more than half a millennium of wars, invasions and plagues. But less than twenty years were enough for the Foundation, born after the Amatp law, to be able to squander a large part of that billionaire heritage.
Today we start again. After a historic meeting that ruled the abolition of the 4% ceiling for the private shareholders of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, a turning point that is as necessary as it is contested by a surreal front in the stubborn refusal to face reality: trade unions wallpapering the city against "surrendering to the foreigner", a robust front within the Democratic Party that tried to sabotage the vote on the abolition of the roof until the end; the lunge of the mayor Bruno Valentini, in favor of the creation in the bank's capital of a nucleus of shareholders, perhaps linked by a syndicate agreement, a way to allow the Foundation to continue to weigh in the governance of the bank; the rhetoric of Eugenio Neri of the pdl who declaims "it is a sad day for Siena, today the historic link between the bank and the city will be broken, which is why I have decided not to participate in the city council". There are no strong reactions to his gesture.
In the meantime, Profumo, with unsuspecting patience, repeated to the shareholders what he has been trying to explain for months in all the city offices:
1) A necessary, albeit not sufficient, condition for MPS to remain independent is the return of the Monti Bonds. "Otherwise we would be nationalized and we would disappear from Siena" because current European regulations "would require the state to sell parts or all of the bank to third parties".
2) The capital increase is therefore necessary. But without the abolition of the "4% restriction, the MPS Foundation would not be able to make disposals to cover its debt and the Bank would not be able to carry out the capital increase necessary to repay the state loans". In short, a global disaster.
3) Let no one be under the illusion that investors anxious to capture the Sienese grip are knocking at the gates. "Unfortunately, there are no new shareholders on the horizon yet." This was stated by the president of Mps, Alessandro Profumo, responding to the shareholders in the Assembly and recalling that for now "none of us has gone looking for them" also because "it would have been impossible to go looking for them in the uncertainty" on the plan being examined by the EU and interests Monti Bond.
4) Better that the new shareholder is not from the sector, otherwise goodbye to independence. "If I have to make one wish, it is that he is not an operator in the sector because if he introduces himself it means that he wants to buy us, which we would like to avoid". “There is no identikit – he continued – In our ideal world it should be someone interested in a long-term project”.
Already, from today Mps can look to the long term but, CEO Fabrizio Viola underlines, it is important that "there is not a long time" for a definitive response from the EU Commission which is analyzing the restructuring plan prepared to also get the go free at Monti bond. Also because, according to rumors, the couple who lead MPS are toying with the idea of a more ambitious plan, with a more robust capital increase than the one already decided for one billion. “These are not appropriate declarations” replies the CEO. But the bank is already accelerating its major transformation. Within the year the project to outsource 1,100 employees will be completed. We're at a good point: the goal, if there are no surprises, is to complete it by the end of the year. It's close at hand." And let no one be under any illusions that the lean cow season is winding down. A year-end dividend, in this framework, is not topical. “I feel comfortable excluding it – explained Viola – regardless of the profit, in fact, there is a recapitalization issue even with self-financing”.
So far the chronicle of a historic day, not only for Siena. But it is easy to foresee that the jolt inflicted on the soviet of Rocca Salimbeni, a great provider of benefits for the territory (and beyond) will also have effects outside the customs walls of the Tuscan city. Of course, the umbilical cord that linked the Foundation and the bank is of a very different nature from that which runs between the Compagnia di San Paolo or the Cariplo Foundation vis-à-vis Intesa or between the shareholder foundations of Unicredit and the bank in Piazza Cordusio. And so on. But the feeling is that the time is ripe to speed up the divorce between foundations and bank assets. This is dictated by the need for Foundations to increase profitability in order to be able to fulfill their statutory obligations over time. This is required, for equally compelling reasons, by the need of the banking world to proceed with a season of M&A, not only between Italian credit companies, to strengthen the capital base and proceed to clean the balance sheets from the non-performing virus (in growth to 33%) .
In short, a season of changes is looming that will have the European Union as a co-protagonist. For once, it will be necessary for Italy not just to submit to the indications in the name of the usual and frustrating "Brussels asks for it" but to make proposals and impose solutions. If necessary, it is not taboo to ask for the intervention of the OMT to speed up the process of cleaning up the banking system. The important thing is that credit companies, starting with Mps, recover their ability to provide credit as soon as possible. From that point of view, Profumo may be the right person. It is no coincidence that the first fund dedicated to mini bonds saw the light under the battered spire of Rocca Salimbeni. Where, until recently, attention was paid to spreading losses rather than creating value.
