Andrea Orcelthe number one of Unicreditis what one would define, in finance, as an opportunistic trader.
Someone who doesn’t have big problems. He didn’t do anything about it when he “advised” Monte dei Paschi di Siena to buy Antonveneta for 9 billion euros, despite having a “slight” conflict of interest. Nothing was done when he asked UBS to release the shares to him, which are normally lost when one passes to a competitor, and nothing was done with past governments and MEF directors who asked him to buy himself Mps and which Orcel sent to hang. And earlier this week he had no problem launching a hostile takeover of the Banca Popolare di Milano, without even notifying the government. In reality, a phone call to Palazzo Chigi arrived, but an hour before the official announcement.
Orcel, questioned by the English parliamentary commission investigating the Libor rate manipulation scandal, replied: «We all got probably too arrogant», we have probably all become too arrogant. A trait that also applies to his last move. The takeover of the Banca Popolare di Milano is not exactly a politically neutral operation. The institute led by Giuseppe Castagna he had been working for some time to set up a third Italian banking group. He had bought a piece of Monte dei Paschi di Siena from the Treasury and had launched an offer to buy the entirety of one of the few managed savings factories left in Italy, Soul. A third large Italian operator would have been created, alongside the only system bank, Intesa, led by Carlo Messina, and Unicredit, of course. In an industrial system like ours, only Heaven, perhaps more than the market, knows how necessary the presence of more large operators who believe in our country system is. Orcel’s predecessor, right in Unicredithad instructed his men to pay close attention to the so-called “Italy risk”. Which means tightening the credit cords, just imagine, when we were talking about extraordinary operations. It was the same one who sold an important piece of Italian managed savings to the French; the same managed savings that Orcel today wants to take back by conquering the subsidiary Anima via Bpm. A certain schizophrenia in the bank’s policy, but that’s another matter.
Furthermore, with the climb to Bpm, Orcel reiterated that he doesn’t want to know about Monte. Which means that the match returns to the Government, which is still a shareholder.
Orcel gives opportunistic trader he is doing nothing other than his job and that is to maximize options, or if you prefer, keep one foot in more shoes. He is trying to take over a large German bank, but is blocked by the political crisis in Berlin. And in the meantime he puts a chip on the Italian chessboard. Trying to get their hands on the bank that is located in the richest area of the country. The offer he made is according to the market, ridiculous. The price is too low, and paid, as is customary, only by card. Everyone expects a revival.
One of the slogans that many politicians on the right and left wave is that Europe needs a banking union. Do you know what that means? Simply put, today in Europe, as far as credit institutions are concerned, there are still 27 independent and autonomous nations. Unicredit controls HVB, in Germany. Never, ever, under Teutonic rules, can the German subsidiary reduce its capital in Germany for operations outside its country. The balance sheets of European banks are segregated: although Milan controls Berlin, the latter’s capital cannot be absorbed beyond the borders. Anything but the free market. Not to mention the national interbank funds that do not guarantee the depositories of other states.
In such a scenario, a Building Chigi and from the parts of the ministry of Giorgettithey are thinking about countermoves. Nothing sensational. For goodness sake. But they understood that it is not enough to defend Generali’s fort, to ensure that Italian financial levers are not in the hands of some opportunistic trader.
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