About to merge with Intesa Sanpaolo to create the third largest European banking group, Ubi Banca has presented its first-half accounts, defined in a note as "resilient, despite the strong impact of Covid-19". The bank so far led by Victor Massiah has succeeded in a difficult context a advance net profit 38%, to 184,3 million euros. Profit also held up in the second quarter, falling slightly from 93,6 to 90,7 million.
Shortly after the publication of the accounts, the official news arrived that had been in the air for days: as a result of the Intesa operation, the managing director and general manager Victor Massiah has tendered his resignationwith immediate effect. His duties are temporarily assigned to the deputy general manager, Elvio Sonnino. The entire Board of Directors thanked Massiah for the work done, in particular the president Letizia Moratti, who expressed personal appreciation, stating that "in the over 11 years at the top of the group, moreover in a challenging regulatory and macroeconomic context, Dr. Massiah has contributed to building a solid, esteemed, sustainable reality, where the national dimension has nonetheless remained respectful of the roots and proximity to the territory as well as the interests of all stakeholders ”. "For the future - Massiah said at the press conference - I haven't decided what to do yet but I have no regrets and I don't agree with Professor Bazoli's criticisms that we would have lost the opportunity to act as aggregators in 2015"
Returning to the half-year report, the other results also performed well: disbursements accelerated in the second quarter, to 5,5 billion, of long-term loans compared to 3,9 in the first quarter (+42%); indirect deposits rose to 98,7 billion compared to 92,2 as at 31 March (+7%, and direct deposits also rose by 4,8%); current accounts flowing into the bank reached 70,7 billion from around 68 as at 31 March; the CET1 ratio stands at 13,41% (discounting a pro-rata dividend of €0,20 per share for 2020) compared to 12,86% as at 31 March.
Ubi Banca also continues its derisking activity, further reducing its exposure to non-performing loans: NPE ratio down slightly to 7,48% (7,51% in March) and 6,6% pro-forma excluding the sale of approximately 800 million SME bad loans in progress. The stock of total gross non-performing loans stood at 6,568 billion, down
by 1,6% (or €104,6 million) compared to 31 March (and down by 3,9% or €269,8 million compared to December 2019). In net terms, stocks of non-performing loans fell to €3,9 billion from €4,03 billion in March and €4,17 billion in December 2019.
Operating income was also slightly down to €1,795 billion, with a contained decrease of 1,8% compared to the first half of 2019, despite the impact of the lockdown due to Covid-19. The interest margin decreased to 803,4 million (-9,3%). Net of the effects of IFRS9 (down to +17,2 million in the first half of this year compared to +56,2 million in the first half of 2019, essentially due to the significant reduction in the stock of non-performing loans), the interest reduces the decline to 5,3%. Personnel expenses in the second quarter totaled 342,2 million, a decrease of 3,6% compared to 355 in the first quarter, also benefiting from departures in previous periods.
