After the failure of the negotiation with Unicredit, to Ps begins a new path that could lead up to 4 thousand redundancies. The first step, however, is another: the State, owner of 64% of the Bank, will have to ask Brussels for one extension for privatisation, given that the already agreed deadline expires on December 31, 2021. “If Europe is now going to get enough time, I think at least two years, the transferability conditions of MPS could improve”, said Carla Ruocco, president of the Banking Commission on Monday.
But time is not the only variable. Another capital increase is needed on the market: for this reason the managing director, Guido Bastianini, will take over the Strategic Plan of ten months ago and will modify it in the light of the latest developments. The document will be ready in a few weeks and will be used by the Treasury to negotiate the extension of the privatization with the European Antitrust.
The negotiation is still to be entered into, but it is already clear to everyone that Brussels will ask to further reduce labor costs. “Mps has enough space, there are pools of colleagues who could access the redundancy fund on a voluntary basis – Bastianini said in the Banking Commission – The numbers are quite varied, from 2.500 to up to 4”.
According to the CEO's estimates, in the worst case (4 redundancies out of 21 employees) they will need "about 950 million spent”, which would make it possible to “obtain a reduction in personnel costs of 315 million per year in 2026”. The money will be found on the market, within thecapital increase which in about three months should raise around three billion euros.
