Obbligazioni perpetue e subordinate Tutto quello che avreste sempre voluto sapere sulle obbligazioni perpetue... - Cap. 3

BP Vicenza Receives Confirmation of Underwritten Capital Increase, a Credit Positive
Last Thursday, UniCredit SpA (Baa1/Baa1 stable, ba14 ) said that it would move forward with its commitment to underwrite €1.5 billion of a €1.8 billion capital increase for Banca Popolare di Vicenza (BPVi, unrated) first announced in January. UniCredit’s announcement refuted market rumours that it would back out of its commitment because market conditions for a capital increase were not met. This is credit positive for BPVi, which will restore its capital levels above its regulatory requirements with the capital increase, and for Italian banks, which were at risk of contagion if BPVi’s capital increase had failed. Absent UniCredit’s guarantee, BPVi’s capital increase would have been at risk, potentially triggering an intervention by the European Central Bank (ECB). In recent years, BPVi loan-loss charges have increased significantly following onsite inspections by the Bank of Italy and the ECB’s comprehensive assessment. As a consequence, the bank reported losses totalling €1.4 billion in 2015 and €759 million in 2014, which resulted in the bank reporting a common equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio of 6.65% as of December 2015, around €900 million below the BPVi-specific prudential minimum CET1 ratio of 10.25%. To restore capital levels above those required by the ECB’s supervisory review and evaluation process (SREP), BPVi planned to complete a €1.8 billion capital increase by 10 May, €1.5 billion of which would be secured by a pre-underwriting agreement with UniCredit. Following the capital increase, BPVi estimated that its CET1 ratio would exceed 12%. Because it was unclear if BPVi’s capital increase would be fully subscribed, UniCredit’s underwriting was crucial. Wholesale investors could be interested in acquiring BPVi’s shares, but the highly volatile stock market poses execution risks. The capital increase will be conducted in conjunction with a listing of the bank after its conversion to a joint-liability company. The listing is likely to result in material losses for current shareholders, most of which are clients of the bank, because of capital dilution. The weakness of Italian bank shares this year suggests that attracting private capital for a weak bank such as BPVi would be challenging and that UniCredit’s guarantee would be triggered. The risk associated with such a scenario would be manageable for UniCredit, whose assets totalled €860 billion as of 2015, well above BPVi’s assets of €40 billion as of 2015. If, in an unlikely worst-case scenario, UniCredit were to hold €1.5 billion of BPVi’s shares, its CET1 would fall by 38 basis points to 10.35%, close to its SREP minimum of 10%. However, if UniCredit were to hold one third of BPVi’s shares, its CET1 would fall by only 15 basis points. Other banks involved in the BPVi capital raise include BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase and Mediobanca. We also expect that there will be some market demand because even weak banks such as Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena S.p.A. (B2/B3 negative, caa2) and Banca Carige S.p.A. (B3 positive, caa3) were able to raise capital last year. The Italian government has announced the creation of a banking sector fund that would invest in bank shares to facilitate a restructuring of the sector and address banks’ high volume of nonperforming loans. The fund may ultimately hold part of the shares not absorbed by the market
 
B.Popolare: Moody's pone rating lungo termine in revisione per upgrade


MILANO (MF-DJ)--Moody's Investor Service ha posto in review per upgrade il rating di lungo termine sui depositi Ba2, il rating di lungo termine sul debito senior Ba3, nonche' il rating Baseline Credit Assessment b2 di B.Popolare.

Lo si apprende da una nota nella quale si precisa che i rating di breve termine sono stati confermati a Not prime.

com/lab


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 14, 2016 02:38 ET (06:38 GM
 

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