“We have a commitment up to a billion e must not exceed 20% of the fund total”. Said the CEO of Unicredit, Federico Ghizzoni, talking about the institute joining the new fund Atlas, created to help the Italian banking system in terms of capital increases and non-performing loans.
"We have already had the go ahead with the last council and therefore next May we will report the outcome of the operation", he added, underlining that the share of one billion is "a ceiling". As for the duration, the banker reiterated that it is “5 years, renewable from year to year up to another three.
The incoming and outgoing mechanisms are the usual ones of asset management companies”, continued Ghizzoni, specifying that Unicredit's intention is not to exit early, but “to remain in the fund certainly for the 5 years envisaged”.
Finally, with regard to the expected economic return, Ghizzoni limited himself to saying that "it is certainly not a non-repayable investment, but an adequate return is expected and it is one of the reasons why we entered".
Ghizzoni then underlined that Unicredit's interest in the Atlante fund derives primarily from the contribution that the project will be able to give to solution of the problem of non-performing loans in Italy: “We – he said – are very interested in the chapter on non-performing loans because we believe that it is the main issue that keeps the prices of banks very low today. It is clear that if we go from 200 billion bad debts to a much smaller number, we all benefit".
As for the methods of accounting for the intervention in the fund and the capital absorption that joining the project will bring with it, Ghizzoni explained that these are data that can be calculated once Atlante is operational and has obtained the go-ahead from the authorities .
However, the banker noted that it will not be an industrial holding but one financial participation and will therefore lead to a lower capital absorption.
Furthermore, yesterday the Unicredit shareholders' meeting approved with a very large majority the 2015 budget of the institute. 97,81% of the capital present voted in favor (equal to 48,96%). The group closed 2015 with a loss of 1,4 billion, against a consolidated profit of 1,7 billion.
