E' gia' crollato pesantemente...
(Bloomberg) -- Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA’s latest bond has taken less than two days to become the second worst-performing new note in Europe this year.
The Italian lender’s subordinated Tier 2 bond is trading at about 96 cents on the euro, after being sold at par on Tuesday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The yield on the 300 million-euro ($337 million) 10-year note has surpassed 11%. On a total return basis, the note trails only Loxam SAS’s 200 million euros of 4.5% 2027 bonds sold in April, which have lost 4.4%.
Monte Paschi’s bond collapse comes even after the world’s oldest lender set a 10.5% coupon -- about double a similar deal last year -- to help offset concerns about its mountain of non-performing loans and low profitability. The slump compounds the challenges the bank will face in selling more notes to meet regulatory requirements, even amid negative interest rates and unprecedented risk appetite in Europe.
“I am a bit wary about their future and also the domestic economic outlook,” said Vaclav Vacikar, a financials credit analyst at Rabobank. Investors in notes such as this “will find themselves more exposed to bad news,” he said.
The bank’s earlier Tier 2 note, sold in January 2018, has handed investors total losses of about 19% since issuance. That’s even after price gains this year amid a wider credit rally.
Monte Paschi almost collapsed two years ago and required a government bailout. It’s 16.3% non-performing loan ratio remains far above the European Union average even after dropping by half since the end of 2017, according to Moody’s Investors Service.
This week’s bond sale “encountered a very positive market response” and represents “a further important step” in the implementation of Monte Paschi’s restructuring plan, the bank said in statement. Final orders were about 600 million euros, or about double the deal size, it said.
Monte Paschi has to sell another 400 million euros of Tier 2 notes to meet European Central Bank requirements, based on comments from the chief executive officer in February.
Story Link: Monte Paschi’s Tier 2 Bond Tumbles Just Two Days After Issuance