A subdued eighth finale for Piazza Affari in a day marked by newsflow linked to quarterly accounts and the rekindling of the M&A fuse between banks with the start of exclusive talks between Unicredit and Tesoro to take over the commercial activities of Banca MPS. The Ftse Mib, fresh from the 1% jump on the eve, closed the last session of the month, losing 0.6% to 25,363 points. To weigh on sentiment i disappointing feedback from Amazon. The e-commerce giant reported worse-than-expected revenue in the second quarter for the first time in three years accompanied by weak guidance.
From the macro front, very positive indications for Europe with GDP in the euro area jumped by 2% qoq in the second quarter. Italy did even better with + 2.7%, at double speed compared to consensus forecasts.
On the parterre of Piazza Affari today stands the + 2.8% to 10.018 euros of Unicredit which has started negotiations with the Treasury for a potential operation concerning the commercial activities of MPS, through the definition of a selected perimeter and adequate measures risk mitigation. The CEO of Unicredit, Andrea Orcel, has specified that a possible agreement will be based on requirements such as capital neutrality, no NPL and litigation, eps growth. Meanwhile, in the second quarter of 2021, Unicredit reported a net profit of 1.034 billion euros, doing much better than the 720 million expected by the consensus. Revenues decreased 6.1 percent Q / Q to € 4.4 billion in the second quarter (+ 5.5% YoY).
Among the other big companies in the accounts test stands out the run of ENI with + 1% after the quarterly report beyond expectations which saw the return of the adj net profit to pre-Covid levels and the doubling of the dividend to € 0.86 per share ( with coupon deposit of 50% in September). A € 400 million buy-back program has also been announced.
Leonardo also did well (+ 1.13%) in the wake of the half-year accounts that beat the estimates, showing a net profit almost tripled compared to the same period of 2020 and revenues up 7.9% y / y. 2021 guidance confirmed.
Enel, on the other hand, was struggling (-2.93% to € 7.78) despite an adjusted half-year ebitda exceeding the consensus (8.36 billion vs 8.25 billion expected). The adj net profit was 2.3 billion, in line with expectations. Dividend per share of € 0.38 and annual guidance on EBITDA and earnings confirmed.
At the bottom of the Ftse Mib we report Saipem at -4.44% after the accounts of the first half with revenues fell from 3.7 to 3.2 billion euros, the (adjusted) Ebitda became negative for 266 million from + 355 million in the corresponding period of 2020. Saipem has decided to launch a simplification plan that will bring annual savings of approximately 100 million euros.