The plan that Mps is preparing to comply with requests imposed by the EBA "will not include any capital increase". Fabrizio Viola confirmed it today the day after his appointment as general manager of MPS. But he specified: "Looking at the balance sheet and financial figure of the bank, regardless of the EBA constraints, I believe that the quality and quantity of capital available to Monte are adequate with respect to the quality of the assets and the risks that characterize the invested assets". To meet the requests of the EBA, a capital strengthening of 3,3 billion, the way passes through a series of capital management measures, asset optimization, asset disposals.
In terms of asset disposals, the reasoning is also "from an industrial point of view", the objective is to avoid that the operation has only a financial nature. "I won't go into the details of the operation but there is a fairly wide range," said Viola. From the capital management relating to the two fresh bond loans, however, it will be possible to obtain benefits of 1 billion.
E the Tremonti bonds seem off the agenda: “'In the speeches made in recent days we have never spoken or thought about the possibility of resorting to new Tremonti bonds”, explained Viola who added: “it is an instrument of the past. We have worked on other forms of capital strengthening”. And if the financial situation before the EBA suggested the repayment of 1,9 billion Tremonti bonds requested in the past, now the repayment will take place after the EBA exercise. “Since the EBA's intervention is a temporary and extraordinary intervention, when this is closed, profitability will return and we will be able to return them. We never mentioned December 2012 as the due date to repay them. The reasoning is based on the bank's capital profitability”.
The Mps stock accelerated positively after the confirmation of the no on the capital increase but then sank, with the generalized reversal of banks and stock exchanges, into the red by 6,98%.
However, what Viola will develop in these days is not a new business plan: a plan “already exists – he said – it was already approved and discussed a few months ago. It is a question of verifying sustainability in the light of a macroeconomic scenario which is different from last year's but which is not dramatically different. The plan also includes a number of regulatory changes with customers." Clearly, we will have to work and see if changes are necessary, also on the sales front staff. Viola's goal is “bring profitability back to the levels of market best practices”, which has been challenged by really tough market conditions.”
Then there is the chapter on human resources and relations with the territory: yesterday the unions returned to demonstrate in Rocca Salimbeni after 15 years. The fear is that the difficulties of the institute and even before that of its main shareholder, the Foundation, could lead to layoffs, mobility and precariousness, loosening the precious link with the local area and the bank. Viola intends to meet the acronyms quickly but as soon as she has something in hand: she “with the aim – she said – of going towards certain things. My style is that of dialectical transparency”.
However, the disputes reach the top management of the Foundation and the bank: "whoever is responsible for the situation in which the Bank finds itself today must assume responsibility and step aside", say the unions who are calling for the resignation of the president of the Grabriello Mancini Foundation and by Giuseppe Mussari. "They have the right to demonstrate", replied today the president of the Sienese institute who will leave the mandate, as already decided some time ago, at its natural expiry date, i.e. April 2012: "It is a choice made in 2009 and strictly personal this is not my job. It is a temporary assignment and cannot be confused with a profession. I started in 2001, 11 years are perhaps already too many. He risked becoming or being taken for a job,” he explained Mussari who denies the hypotheses of his future involvement in politics.
If Mussari's exit in April was well known, not so for the sudden and sudden resignation of Antonio Vigni, the former general manager replaced by Viola. “If the stakes from the EBA hadn't arrived, we would have arrived with Vigni at the natural expiry of his mandate. The EBA has brought about changesMussari said.
