On the Stock Exchange, Generali suffers, even if much less than the banks, but they deserve much more. This is the opinion of the CEO Giovanni Perissinotto in an extensive interview granted to Mf: "In reality we are paying for the tensions on Italian government bonds".
But, beyond the stock market fluctuations, Perissinotto is very satisfied with the group's performance: for three reasons. Firstly because the write-downs are now complete and the market can now better assess the goodness of the industrial result. Secondly, because Generali has considerably strengthened its assets since the beginning of the year, which grew by 2,4 billion euro in two months.
Perissinotto explains: “Our Solvency 1 ratio was 2011% at the end of 117 and at the end of February this year it had already jumped to 132%: the net capital losses which at the end of December amounted to 2,2 billion, at the end of February were not only completely zeroed but even showed a positive net balance of 223 million. In other words, in just two months, shareholders' equity increased by over 2,4 billion.
The third reason for satisfaction arises from the fact that, in line with what was promised at the end of 2010, Generali, despite the difficult times, managed to reduce its bank holdings: in Commerzbank it went from 4,22 to 1,33%. in Santander from 0,7% to 0,58% and in Intesa Sanpaolo from 4,92% to 3,27%.
