Bff rises on rumors of curiosity from funds. Clarification on credit anticipated in July | EUROtoday

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(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) – Bff Bank rising on Piazza Affari, after the collapses of latest weeks brought on by the findings of the Bank of Italy. Investors are questioning about the way forward for the group led by Massimiliano Belingheri, particularly after rumors that the institute is also beneath the lens of personal fairness, contemplating the costs to which it has fallen. In truth, about ten days in the past in just some periods the shares burned 33% of their worth, affected by the information that on the finish of a protracted inspection, Bank of Italy determined to briefly droop the distribution of income.

Via Nazionale additionally positioned a brief veto on the cost of the variable a part of the CEO's remuneration and “on the further expansion of operations abroad, through the opening of new branches or expansion into new countries”. The object of the dispute is the corporate's credit, which based on the Bank of Italy should be labeled in a fashion «completely different from that adopted by Bff» particularly with regard to «the appliance of the suspension to the calculation of the times of arrears to functions of the prudential classification of credit score publicity”. The institute's leaders have tried to calm the waters, providing explanations to investors and reassuring that the shareholder remuneration policy should not change, since Bff has a solid reserve of capital and the ability to generate new capital. “We will dialogue with the regulator to resolve the situation within the next few months,” Belingheri told investors. At this point Bff will have to provide feedback to the Bank of Italy in July 2024. The fact is that if the shares were sailing above 12 euros at the beginning of May, they collapsed to a minimum of 8 euros (on May 10th), and then returned to the 9 euro area. To date, the institute's capitalization is around 1.7 billion euros.

Intermonte issued an 'Outperform' with a price target of 11.4 euros on the Bff, while Equita recommends caution ('Hold') with a target price of 10 euros, also while waiting to understand any private equity moves. The experts at Banca Akros also recommend caution (with a price target of 8.6 euros), believing furthermore that any acquisitions by private equity are difficult, before Bff has clarified its position with the Bank of Italy regarding the classification of credits.

It must be remembered that right this moment Bff doesn’t have a controlling shareholder, the CEO being the most important shareholder with a 6% stake. In the previous, nonetheless, Bff had been managed by funds: till 2015 by Apax, then by Centerbridge which listed it in 2017, utterly exiting the capital in March 2021.