Operations around the capital increase of the company are intensified Popular Bank of Vicenza, which will take place at a price between 0,1 and 3 euro per share. The operation, for a total of 1,763 billion, will lead to the listing of the Bank on the Stock Exchange on 3 May. The intention is to close the placement by the 10th.
The one identified by the institute's board of directors is a rather unusual indicative price range, due to the fact that "insufficient indications of interest have emerged to allow the determination of a specific indicative valuation range according to normal market practice". The valuation of the institute, as emerges from the wide price range, fluctuates between 1,51 and 1,8 billion.
In any case, this is a much lower price compared to the 6,3 euros set by the bank as the equivalent of the right of withdrawal which - specified a statement from Pop Vicenza - was exercised only by 0,27% of the corresponding share capital to 271.339 ordinary shares; and of the 62,50 euros for which the institute put its shares up for sale in August 2014, on the occasion of the last capital increase.
Another key stage for the IPO of the Vicenza institute is the approval of the file by Consob. The President of the Authority Joseph Vegas, on the sidelines of a conference, announced that the examination of the file which will have to grant authorization for the listing of Popolare di Vicenza will take place today.
The market, with statements reported by Reuters, turns up its nose at this assessment for the bank: “I think that regardless of the price range it will be very difficult if not impossible to list it. The market has no intention of subscribing to the IPO. What matters is the discount on tangible equity. At best, Atlante will buy it all,” explains a senior trader.
According to the calculations of a non-quotable analyst, the discount on the tangible is approximately 0,4. “At the same valuation you can buy better banks like UniCredit itself, so why should investors buy Vicenza?” he wonders. Based on the information gathered, the analyst does not see much interest in the operation even if the management of the popular Vicenza-based company is appreciated by the market and "presents itself well".
The operation will also see the debut of Atlas, the new Fund to support the banking sector, which, with a sub underwriting agreement, took over from Unicredit the role of guarantor for the increase and, therefore, the burden of subscribing the portion of the capital increase that will not be subscribed by the market.
One of the tasks of Atlas will also be to take charge of the sufferings of the system, or gods bad debts: just recently, a 10 billion euro novelty has arrived on this front for the system, i.e. a new valuation of bad debts, which from 17,5 cents for each euro would have passed to a value between 20 and 25 cents , according to the calculations presented by the president of Nuova Banca delle Marche, Nuova Banca Etruria e Lazio, Nuova Carife and Nuova Carichieti Robert Nicastro.
A 5% increase in the value of these loans, if applied to a total of 196 billion euro of non-performing loans in the sector, would translate into ten billion more capital for our banks.
