Banca Carige closes the first half of 2021 with a loss of nearly 50 million, not allowing it to confirm the estimate of a final negative result of 84 million for the current year, thus opening up the possibility that this figure is actually worse. The Ligurian institute expressly declares this in the note with which it announces the numbers for the semester: “Following the performance of the first six months of the year, at the end of which a loss of € 49.9 million was recognized against a estimated result for the entire 2021 financial year of – € 84 million, the target for 2021 cannot be promptly confirmed ».
More specifically, Carige has started the period from January to June with a loss attributable to the parent company of 49.9 million, in any case an improvement compared to the figure of 97.77 million in the same period of the previous year (but with a Warning: the latter is a “normalized” figure because in January 2020 the bank was still in extraordinary administration, as per the decision of the ECB at the beginning of 2019). There was a marked improvement in the interest margin, which went from 47.87 to 74.74 million, and net commissions, which increased from 82.18 to 112.64 million. However, operating costs also increased, from 182.27 to 216.35 million.
“Carige – affirms the managing director, Francesco Guido, in the same note – maintains its strong control over the quality of credit assets and continues in the march of recovery of profitability which will become more significant over the next few quarters, in parallel with the completion of the various activities foreseen in the plan. The progress is the result of the strength of its staff and the confidence confirmed by hundreds of thousands of families and businesses. My thanks to them ».
Trying to translate Guido’s words into numbers, the Genoese bank estimates “that the exit from the pandemic scenario from Covid-19 starting from financial year 2022 and the acceleration of the effects of the actions already planned and in progress and / or of the timely launch of any new actions in support of the plan, are able to recover, starting from the 2022 financial year, any part of the 2021 profit margins expected and not achieved, allowing the Directors to confirm the strategic lines and the 2022 targets and 2023 “. Among these, the bank always reminds us, there is the expectation that in 2023 the group will achieve a positive net consolidated result, thus sanctioning the return to profit after the difficulties of recent years.
At the moment, however, the uncertainties remain. So much so that Carige adds in a parenthesis of the press release that, in the scenario in which he does not have to find that financial partner he has been looking for for some time (and which he thought he had found in the Central Bank, in recent months then pulled back), it may be necessary, “In the event of certain circumstances, proceed with a capital strengthening operation”.
Moreover, already in the financial statement relating to the recent return to the Stock Exchange of the shares (among other things in a marked increase after the exit of the half-yearly accounts), the bank opened to the possibility of a capital increase of 400 million in the last quarter of 2022, “in the event that the flexibility regime on capital ratios granted to the banking system by the ECB is not extended beyond 31 December 2022”. Recently, it also emerged that, in the adverse scenario outlined by the ECB, Carige, now 80% controlled by the Interbank Deposit Protection Fund, would have lost more than 900 basis points of Cet1 ratio, that is the indicator that measures the best quality capital of a credit institution, which would thus fall below the 8 per cent share.
Carige, now increasingly destined to become the second banking issue to be resolved after MPS for Mario Draghi’s government, has in any case already set aside a small “dowry” for the group that should welcome it internally. “The total of DTAs recognized in the financial statements as at 30 June 2021 has risen to 780 million” reads the press release, taking into account that “deferred tax assets” are “deferred” tax assets which, under certain conditions, can be converted into receivables tax by the buyer of a bank.