Stop the IPO of Popular Bank of Vicenza. The free float after the capital increase is too low. This was decreed by Borsa Italiana, which explains in a note: “Borsa Italiana does not order the start of trading and therefore the provision for admission of the shares of Banca Popolare di Vicenza is to be considered expired".
The company that manages Piazza Affari has in fact decided that "the conditions for guaranteeing the regular functioning of the market do not exist" due to the results of the offer to subscribe the institute's shares aimed at listing. The start of trading was in fact subordinated "to the verification of the sufficient diffusion of the financial instruments", i.e. to an adequate free float: at the end of the capital increase, the Stock Exchange found that the 91,72% of the capital would be in the hands of "a single subject" (the Atlante fund), 10 institutional investors would have 5,07% of the capital (of which 4,97% in the hands of a single investor "indicated as not computable for free float purposes"), the general public would have 0,36 .2,86% and the pre-existing shareholders XNUMX%.
With the failure of the Popolare di Vicenza listing, 99,33% of the bank thus ends up in the hands of the Atlante fund, which will fully subscribe to the 1,5 billion capital increase. The news comes on an already negative day for Piazza Affari, which in the mid-afternoon loses about 1%, and above all very complicated for the banks, especially the Popolari which, after a timid recovery at the end of the morning lose now around 7% (Banca Popolare and Bpm the worst, together with Mps and Ubi).
“Why should there be worries? We have advisors who have covered us, there are a lot of banks who want to participate”: said the CEO of Banco Popolare, Pier Francesco Saviotti, to those who ask him if there are any concerns in view of the one billion capital increase announced by the institute after the bankruptcy of the stock exchange listing of Banca Popolare di Vicenza. Saviotti spoke as he entered the Teatro alla Scala for the ceremony for the 150th anniversary of the Sole 24 Ore.
