Banca Popolare di Milano 'B+/B' Ratings Affirmed On Successful Capital Increase; Outlook Stable
Publication date: 17-Jun-2014 13:13:20 EST
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On May 27, 2014, Banca Popolare di Milano SCRL successfully finalized the
execution of a €500 million capital increase.
In our view, this creates an additional capital buffer prior to the
upcoming European Central Bank's asset quality review, mitigating the
pressure we perceived to BPM's financial profile.
We are therefore affirming our 'B+/B' ratings on BPM and its core
subsidiary Banca Akros, and removing the ratings from CreditWatch
negative, where we placed them on Nov. 6, 2013.
The stable outlook balances the improvement we expect BPM's management
will bring about in the bank's business position by end-2015, with our
view of the potential reduction in government support for BPM as EU bank
resolution frameworks are put in place.
NEW YORK (Standard & Poor's) June 17, 2014--Standard & Poor's Ratings Services
said today that it affirmed its 'B+/B' long- and short-term counterparty
credit ratings on Italy-based Banca Popolare di Milano SCRL (BPM), and core
subsidiary Banca Akros SpA. At the same time, we removed the long-term ratings
on the two banks from CreditWatch with negative implications, where we placed
them on Nov. 6, 2013. The outlook is stable. We also raised our issue rating
on BPM's €300 million Tier 1 hybrid debt (ISIN: XS0372300227) to 'CCC' from
'D'.
The affirmation follows BPM's successful execution of the €500 million capital
increase on May 27, 2014. This, in our view, creates an additional capital
buffer prior to the upcoming asset quality review (AQR) by the European
Central Bank (ECB). BPM's Core Tier 1 (CT1) ratio was 7.2% on Dec. 31, 2013,
and we estimate that the capital increase will benefit the CT1 ratio by about
120 basis points (bps). The capital increase has mitigated the pressures we
perceived to BPM's financial profile.
We have therefore maintained our "moderate" assessment of BPM's capital and
earnings. We estimate that the €500 rights issue improves our risk-adjusted
capital (RAC) ratio by about 80 bps to 6.1% from 5.3% at end-2013. We
anticipate that BPM would now likely maintain capitalization in line with our
current assessment even if economic conditions in Italy were to deteriorate
further.
In our view, the successful execution of the capital increase represents an
important step forward for BPM's management in carrying out its business and
financial plans. In particular, we understand that management remains
committed to launching several measures aimed at improving the bank's
corporate governance structure by 2015, to address issues raised by the Bank
of Italy (BoI). We anticipate that, if BPM's management executes its plans
successfully, this should benefit the bank's franchise and, ultimately, our
view of BPM's business position over the next 12-18 months.
In addition, management is committed to obtaining the removal of the "add-ons"
to BPM's regulatory capital ratios that the BoI imposed after the inspection
in 2011.
The add-ons are higher risk weightings for BPM's exposures than for those of
other Italian banks on the construction and real estate sectors and for
operational risk; they also mean the benefits in terms of a lower risk
weighting for mortgage-backed loans are not applied. We understand that the
add-ons currently penalize BPM's Core Tier 1 ratio by 169 bps. In our view,
the removal of the add-ons could create an additional regulatory capital
buffer in advance of the ECB's AQR and stress test. However, this would not
affect our RAC calculation, because we calculate risk-weighted assets by
applying our industrywide calibrated risk weights to a bank's exposures at
default (EAD). Still, because some aspects of governance reform have stalled,
in our view, we see a risk that the BoI may decide not to remove the add-ons
until the governance reform is approved.
The upgrade of BPM's €300 million Tier 1 hybrid debt reflects our expectation
that BPM will resume the coupon payment on the due date of June 25, 2014. This
is because the bank has not notified bondholders of its intention not to pay
the coupon between 15 and 25 days prior to the June 25 payment date, which is
the required notice period under the terms and conditions of this instrument.
This follows BPM's resumption of payment in April 2014 on its €160 million
8.393% noncumulative perpetual preferred securities issued by BPM Capital
Trust I and guaranteed by BPM.
The stable outlook reflects our belief that BPM's business profile will
benefit from the successful execution of the management's plan to consolidate
the bank's franchise and strengthen its reputation, including measures to
improve its weaker-than-peers corporate governance. This should
counterbalance, in our view, the potential removal by end-2015 of the notch of
uplift in the ratings for extraordinary government support, which is likely to
be less predictable under the new EU Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive
(BRRD).
We could lower the long-term ratings on BPM and its core subsidiary Banca
Akros if we consider that BPM's management's efforts to improve the bank's
corporate governance structure have not succeeded, and if we also believe that
extraordinary government support is less predictable under the new EU BRRD.
We could also lower the ratings if we were to consider that BPM's asset
quality would deteriorate by far more than our current forecast, affecting our
view of its risk position. In 2014 and 2015, we anticipate that BPM will
likely accumulate net new nonperforming assets amounting to about a cumulative
4% of customer loans as of end-2012. We also estimate that, by end-2015, BPM's
credit losses will be about 2.7%-2.9% of customer loans as of end-2012.
We could raise the ratings if we believe that BPM's business position has
improved thanks to the execution of the bank's management plans, including
better corporate governance, and if we consider that potential extraordinary
government support for BPM's senior unsecured creditors is unchanged in
practice, despite the introduction of bail-in powers and international efforts
to increase banks' resolvability.