RAMPL LEAVES, GROS PIETRO IN POLE. PERFUME RETURNS ON THE SADDLE IN SIENA
Earthquake in Unicredit: “President Dieter Rampl has informed the board of his decision not to be available for a new mandate”. The names of possible successors are already being mentioned. In pole position is Gian Maria Gros Pietro, former president of Iri, Eni and Atlantia, today a Fiat director. Alternatively, the general manager of the Bank of Italy, Fabrizio Saccomanni, who would be very welcome by all but is hampered by the incompatibility rules of Via Nazionale.
The certain fact is that, a year and a half ago after the farewell of Alessandro Profumo, the German president who had assumed office in 2005, following the incorporation of HVB, also leaves. In short, the domestic soul prevailed, embodied by the former banking foundations opposed to the revolution envisaged by Rampl: a leaner board, made up of directors with more international skills and profiles. The small foundations (Manodori, CassaMarca and Banco di Sicilia) responded spadely. The big ones (Crt Foundation, Cariverona and Carimonte) have opted for an Italian president. And so, after six hours of discussions, Rampl took the step back, in line with what was anticipated at Parma Forex when the banker had made it known that he was willing to remain at the helm of the group only with an agreement from the Italian and foreign shareholders , on governance.
The board, which lasted over seven hours, was attended, among others, by the vice president Farhat Omar Bengdara, former governor of the Libyan central bank, one of the major shareholders of the bank even after the dilution following the recent capital increase of 7,5 billion. In a shareholding structure that sees the Abu Dhabi fund, Aabar, as the largest shareholder with 6,5%, Leonardo Del Vecchio has meanwhile confirmed that he has doubled his stake.
Debts can wait. But no names. The MPS Foundation has decided to stall for the sale of the 15% stake needed to repay the debt. The choice is to close as soon as possible the sale to private individuals of a package of Banca Mps (yesterday +2,8%) around 2-3%, to then proceed with the sale of the rest, between 8 and 10%. in a later period. On the contrary, under the impetus of the mayor Franco Ceccuzzi, it was decided to bring forward the presentation of the Foundation's list for the new council to mid-March in order to avoid that two matches cross (and cheat) each other. Leading the list will be Alessandro Profumo, ready for a sensational return. In the meantime, the Equinox hypothesis of the "enemy" Salvatore Mancuso, ready to take over 10% of the capital, is waning: for now, Mayor Ceccuzzi has not even wanted to meet him. The Clessidra fund is waiting.
DOW JONES OVER 13 THOUSAND POINTS (HIGHEST SINCE 2008). APPLE IS WORTH MORE THAN 500 BILLION. EVEN ASIA FLYING
Wall Street meanwhile roars on the wave of the return of consumer confidence. The S&P500 gains 0,17%, the Nasdaq gains 0,6%. But the real news comes from the Dow Jones: the index closed the session at 13,005 (+0,20%), for the first time beyond the barrier of 13 points. The collapse (-4%) of orders for durable goods in January was thus forgotten, as was the drop in house prices in the top 20 cities, which fell by 4% in December. Apple's invitation to analysts (yesterday +1,8% to $535) is certainly more newsworthy: “Come to San Francisco on March 7: there's something you deserve to see. And touch”. Meanwhile Apple has entered the select club of corporations worth more than 500 billion dollars. Upside session on Asian stock exchanges: Tokyo +0,52%, Hong Kong +0,89%. The growth of optimism was favored by data on industrial production growing in January both in Japan +2% and in South Korea +3,3%.
Today, the rain will come down from the skies of Frankfurt. But no one will use an umbrella to protect themselves from the rain of liquidity that will be distributed by the ECB starting at 16 pm, three and a half hours after the maximum time for requests to Ltro closes, the unlimited quantity of liquidity with ready contracts/ three-year term at 1% made available to the banks by Mario Draghi.
Analysts expect the banks to request approximately 500 billion euros, more or less the same amount as the previous operation at the end of December, which was decisive in avoiding the collapse of southern Europe's sovereign debt. The president of the ECB, Mario Draghi, this time expects liquidity to be used to restart the credit system for businesses and households.
The beneficial effect of abundant liquidity was also seen yesterday, on the occasion of theBtp auction which closed a February full of satisfactions for the Treasury, placed the maximum expected amount of 6,25 billion Btp. In particular, boom in demand for the new 10-year BTP: securities worth 3,75 billion euro were placed, against requests for 5,26 billion and with a yield of 5,5%, the lowest since August and down from 6,08% at the end of January.
While waiting for the Ltro, the European stock markets closed with modest gains, after going from positive to negative and vice versa a couple of times, at the mercy of the conflicting data on the American economy. In Milan, the FtseMib index closed up 0,2%, London gained 0,2%, Paris +0,3%, Frankfurt +0,5%.
The protagonists of the ups and downs in Piazza Affari were bank stocks. At the end of the session, these were the main changes: Intesa -0,6%, Unicredit +0,9%, Ubi +1,3%, Banco Popolare -0,4%. MontePaschi +2,8% and PopMilano +1,4% remained constantly on the rise. Among the blue chips of Piazza Affari, the star of the day is StM, which jumped up by 7% after the announcement that the NovaThor platform, produced by the St-Ericsson joint-venture (50% StM), was chosen by Samsung for his new Galaxy mobile phone. Finmeccanica fell by 1,3%, the subsidiary Ansaldo rose by 0,2%. Impregilo advanced by 1,8%. Little moves Enel +0,2% and Eni +0,2%. Telecom Italia fell by 1,8% after the recent strong increases. Sales on Mediaset are back -2,1%.
Fiat in equilibrium +0,01% in Piazza Affari after the declarations of the managing director Sergio Marchionne, who defined possible alliances with the Japanese manufacturers Suzuki, to which Fiat already supplies engines, and Mazda, a former outpost of Ford in the Rising Sun in response to the PSA-General Motors axis. The Lingotto stock, cautious in the morning, marks an increase of 1,43% to 4,53 euros.
“There aren't many partners left in Europe,” Marchionne explained to those who asked him about possible alliances with Mazda and Suzuki. “The world is open and we can do things everywhere, now we have just returned from Russia, we are moving”. The CEO of Fiat underlined that "approximately 20% of the production capacity of the European car industry is redundant". To solve the problem "a joint effort at the European level is needed", because it is not enough to "liberalise in Europe if we then suffer from inflexibility at the national level".
The rise in oil (Wti is stable at 108,2 dollars a barrel) pushed Landi Renzo +6,2%, the world's leading company for gas systems for cars. Positive for Piaggio +5,8%. Sharp drop of Saras -4,8%, despite the good results announced in the morning. Sator and Palladio would be thinking of requesting a meeting with the creditor banks of Premafin -14,62% to illustrate their investment project on the holding company headed by Fondiaria-Sai. A source close to the situation says it, explaining that the meeting has the aim of "presenting the binding offer for Premafin and the debt restructuring plan".
