Labors of Atlas second act. It kicks off with today's assembly the new Veneto Banca, 97% controlled by the Atlante fund. In the meantime, the action to clean up the suffering of Popolare di Vicenza has begun, another great challenge entrusted to the structure headed by Alessandro Penati.
Now the most delicate challenge begins: support for Monte Paschi, -17% on the stock market in the last week, despite the ban on short selling remaining in force. In particular, Atlante 2 will have to take on the repurchase of a part of the non-performing loans (27,2 billion) of Mps, a company to be carried out with the contribution of JP Morgan, also involved in the equity part of the operation. It won't be an easy task: the fund's capital raising is completed today. Atlante 2, a private vehicle (but fleshed out by the funds of Sga, the former bad bank of Banco Napoli and by the presence of the CDP) will be able to count on 2,4 billion, including 800 million inherited from Atlante 1. The figure is less than declared target of 5 billion, which could favor new waves of pessimism. But the "courageous operation" (according to Alberto Nagel's definition) can count on the support of a part of international finance, not just JP Morgan.
“Atlante entrusts management and control power to the new Board of Directors which has the primary objective of relaunching and enhancing the bank. We therefore hope that the bank's business plan will be revised, without discarding any hypotheses. We will be open to any financial and industrial partnerships as long as they are based on real capital contributions and know-how for development and are ready to evaluate,
once the restructuring and relaunch work has unequivocally started and clarity has been made on the past costs, hypotheses of listing or merger with other banks, provided that they are in the interest of all stakeholders". So Alessandro Penati, president of Quaestio sgr,
as manager of the Atlante fund, first shareholder of Vento Banca with 97.6% of the capital, in a statement released before the start of the shareholders' meeting.
