UNCFF - UniCredit S.p.A.
| Previous Close | 13.04 |
| Open | 13.04 |
| Bid | 0.00 x 0 |
| Ask | 0.00 x 0 |
| Day's Range | 13.04 - 13.04 |
| 52 Week Range | 10.01 - 14.73 |
| Volume | 1,000 |
| Avg. Volume | 1,653 |
| Market Cap | 29.123B |
| Beta (3Y Monthly) | 1.16 |
| PE Ratio (TTM) | 4.03 |
| EPS (TTM) | 3.24 |
| Earnings Date | N/A |
| Forward Dividend & Yield | N/A (N/A) |
| Ex-Dividend Date | 2018-04-23 |
| 1y Target Est | 8.39 |
- Reuters
Italy's biggest bank wants to become less Italian
The chief executive of UniCredit has a plan to revive his company's ailing share price - make it less Italian. Italy's biggest bank is looking at whether it can distance itself from its home country's stagnating economy and fractious politics by putting some of its most prized assets under one roof in Germany, people familiar with the matter said. Jean Pierre Mustier will unveil on Dec. 3, as part of his new business plan, a scheme to set up a new sub-holding company in Germany to house the bank's foreign operations, the sources said.
- Reuters
UPDATE 2-Euro zone bond yields rise ahead of crunch Brexit vote
Euro zone bond yields rose on Friday, a day before the British parliament is due to vote on whether to approve an agreement on the United Kingdom's departure from the European Union. Yields have generally pushed higher since Irish and British leaders said on Oct. 10 they saw a path to a Brexit deal, boosting risk appetite and weakening demand for safe-haven assets such as bonds. EU leaders unanimously backed a new Brexit agreement with Britain on Thursday, but now British Prime Minister Boris Johnson faces a battle to secure parliament's backing if he is to take his country out of the European Union on Oct. 31.
- Reuters
Euro zone bond yields inch up before UK's Brexit vote
Euro zone bond yields inched up on Friday as the British parliament prepared to vote on Saturday for or against an agreement on the United Kingdom's departure from the European Union. EU leaders unanimously backed the new Brexit deal on Thursday, leaving UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson facing a battle to secure parliament's backing if he still hopes to take Britain out of the EU on Oct. 31. "Today will be all about estimating how likely it is that the British parliament will agree to the Brexit deal tomorrow," UniCredit analysts said in a client note.
- Bloomberg
Watch Out, Billionaire Del Vecchio Is Meddling
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Italy’s second-richest tycoon made his fortune in spectacles, and now he has ideas about how to run a bank. There is no doubting Leonardo Del Vecchio’s entrepreneurial flair. But his decision to take a 7% stake in Mediobanca SpA and opine publicly about its strategy merits caution. He is but one shareholder, and he should not dictate the lender’s strategy.Del Vecchio is not a naturally passive shareholder or owner. Chief executive officers at his glasses maker Luxottica Group SpA would rotate at an alarming pace. The merger of Luxottica with French lenses group Essilor diluted his dominant holding into a non-controlling stake and created a balanced board with representation from both sides. The arrangement soon fell into acrimony. That is an inauspicious backdrop for a large and potentially growing investment in Mediobanca.His motivations are unclear. The benign explanation is that this is portfolio diversification: Most of Del Vecchio’s wealth is tied up in the eyewear industry. He has some financial exposure to Italian insurer Assicurazioni Generali SpA and lender UniCredit SpA, but this is relatively small. The more worrying possibility is that it really is about meddling with another Generali shareholder — Mediobanca owns 13% of the insurer — or that it relates to some other personal agenda.Del Vecchio has reportedly said Mediobanca needs to be more ambitious in mergers and acquisitions, expand in investment banking, and rely less on the income it receives from Generali. It is not obvious all of these ideas would benefit other shareholders. Wealth management is where acquisitions might make sense for Mediobanca, but deals are risky given that the main assets — the people — can walk out of the door. Mediobanca CEO Alberto Nagel has been rightly cautious.Lifting exposure to investment banking activities, reviving a former strategy, would re-introduce more volatile revenue streams and risk lowering the multiple of earnings on which the shares trade.The function of the Generali stake is a trickier question. Corporate finance theory would dictate that Mediobanca should sell it and return cash to shareholders. If the bank needed cash in the future, it would then ask shareholders to stump up when it could show what the funds would be used for.That works for big, diversified corporations like Unilever NV. But a smaller, less well-capitalized, Italy-focused bank would probably find the capital markets unwilling to provide funds just when it needed them most — for example, in hard times when bid targets were most affordable. So long as there is a possibility that Mediobanca might want to do M&A, the stake is best seen as a financial resource to be retained.It’s possible that Del Vecchio’s vision and Nagel’s could align if Mediobanca finds a decent takeover target, which the Generali stake could pay for. But while Mediobanca’s existing strategy looks sound, and the group is well run, Nagel cannot be complacent. The Generali stake makes a big contribution to net income but doesn’t require any management effort. And Mediobanca’s central and treasury functions make an uncomfortably high dent in the profits that the other businesses bring in. An upcoming strategy refresh offers the chance for Nagel to set some hard targets for revenue growth and further cost efficiency that would dispel any suggestion of low ambition.To contact the author of this story: Chris Hughes at chughes89@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Melissa Pozsgay at mpozsgay@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Chris Hughes is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering deals. He previously worked for Reuters Breakingviews, as well as the Financial Times and the Independent newspaper.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg
UniCredit Said to Tell ECB It May Create New German Holding
(Bloomberg) -- UniCredit SpA has told European Central Bank officials that it may create a German holding company to control part of its business, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The move could potentially reduce funding costs and help shield the Italian bank from any future crisis in its home country.The plan, which hasn’t been finalized, could be announced at the bank’s Dec. 3 investor day, according to people with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. UniCredit may move some or all of its non-Italian assets into the new holding, they said. One option is to later list as much as 30% of the new company, one of the people said. Other locations besides Germany are being considered, another person said.UniCredit Chief Executive Officer Jean Pierre Mustier has emphasized the bank’s international ambitions since he took over in 2016. After spending the first part of his tenure cleaning up bad loans, cutting jobs and strengthening the balance sheet, the CEO said he expects to accelerate the run down of non-essential business, adjust its holdings of Italian sovereign debt and improve its capital buffer.Putting assets in a new Germany-based unit may help UniCredit lower funding costs. It’s credit default swaps, which track the perception of debt riskiness, indicate that borrowing is much cheaper for the Austrian and German units than they are for the parent company. The arrangement could also protect more assets from any potential political or economic crisis in Italy.Mustier has repeatedly said that UniCredit will remain listed and headquartered in Milan. However he said last year that the bank will take more action to reduce exposure between the group’s various units. UniCredit operates in 14 European countries, with large businesses in Germany and Austria as well as central and eastern Europe. The bank gets more than half of its revenue from outside Italy.A UniCredit spokesman and an ECB spokeswoman declined to comment.UniCredit owns Hypovereinsbank, one of the country’s biggest lenders with 287 billion euros ($316 billion) of assets at the end of last year. The Italian bank has mostly failed to overcome resistance by regulators to use HVB’s liquidity to support parts of the group outside Germany.HVB was seen as key to a potential UniCredit bid for Commerzbank AG, Germany’s second-biggest publicly traded lender. The Italian bank in May hired advisers for a possible deal, but the effort has since been put on ice, people familiar with the matter have said.Several other banks, including UBS Group AG, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. have been shifting hundreds of billions of euros in assets to Germany as they prepare for Brexit and turn their Frankfurt-based subsidiaries into European hubs. The move is usually accompanied by an increase in the local workforce, partly because regulators want to be sure the additional assets are overseen by more staff, including risk managers.(Adds other banks’ moves in Germany in the last paragraph.)\--With assistance from Nicholas Comfort.To contact the reporters on this story: Sonia Sirletti in Milan at ssirletti@bloomberg.net;Steven Arons in Frankfurt at sarons@bloomberg.net;Boris Groendahl in Vienna at bgroendahl@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Dale Crofts at dcrofts@bloomberg.net, Ross Larsen, Christian BaumgaertelFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Financial Times
Third of biggest banks fail to sign up to climate initiative
Twenty-eight of the world’s largest banks have not signed up to a climate change initiative backed by Bank of England governor Mark Carney that encourages businesses to disclose the risks global warming ...
- Financial Times
Ray-Ban billionaire Del Vecchio to lift stake in Mediobanca
Ray-Ban billionaire Leonardo Del Vecchio plans to lift his stake in Mediobanca above 10 per cent and push for the Italian investment bank to revamp its strategy, according to people briefed on the matter. It adds to holdings Mr Del Vecchio already has in UniCredit and Generali, Italy’s largest insurer. Mediobanca should look to expand its investment banking business to become a leader in “Italy and Europe”, while making the business less dependent on Generali, in which it owns a stake, and Compass, the bank’s consumer finance business, the billionaire told reporters.
- Financial Times
UniCredit plans to charge negative interest rates from 2020
Italian bank UniCredit plans to charge customers to hold large deposits from 2020, in an attempt to offset the European Central Bank’s negative interest rates. “Any negative rates would be passed on to clients with deposits well above €100,000,” chief executive Jean Pierre Mustier said on Wednesday in an interview with BFM, a French news channel. UniCredit confirmed the plans.
- Bloomberg
German Lenders Pass Pain of Negative Rates to Retail Clients
(Bloomberg) -- A growing number of German banks are passing on negative interest rates to their retail customers as the costs become too high to bear on their own.Berliner Volksbank, the country’s second-largest cooperative lender, started to apply a minus 0.5% rate on deposits exceeding 100,000 euros ($110,000) in its first charge for retail clients. The move may encourage other lenders to follow suit, with both Deutsche Bank AG and Commerzbank AG signaling that they’re warming to the idea.“Things are changing in the industry and we expect further negative interest rates, especially since one of the major cooperative lenders has now taken that step,” said Oliver Maier, co-head of market researcher Verivox Finanzvergleich.Germany’s banks have long resisted passing on the burden of negative rates to retail clients, concerned that they will face reputational damage and mass withdrawals. But after five years of negative rates from the European Central Bank, the country’s banks -- already struggling with sub-par profitability -- are running out of ways to offset the hit to earnings.At least 34 German lenders have already opted to drag some retail clients into the fray of negative rates, according to data provider Biallo.de. Most of them, however, are smaller banks and the threshold is often well above the 100,000 euro mark set by Berliner Volksbank. Many have passed on the costs to corporate and wealth clients for some time.Costing BillionsThe rate policy is costing German lenders 2.4 billion euros a year, according to the country’s banking lobby. Last month, the ECB reduced the deposit rate to minus 0.5% from minus 0.4%. Lenders will get exemptions from the negative rate for some of their deposits.Berliner Volksbank tied its new policy to the ECB’s latest move. Deutsche Skatbank, which imposed the same minus 0.5% rate for accounts that exceed 100,000 euros, said it is “no longer economically justifiable to continue to bear the ECB’s negative interest rate in full.”According to the German association of cooperative lenders, other banks within the group might follow. “It can not be ruled out that additional customers or products will be affected,” said spokeswoman Cornelia Schulz.Some of Germany’s largest banks, which have so far mostly resisted involving their customers, have also signaled the need to act:Deutsche Bank needs to be “more robust” in sharing the consequences of negative rates, Chief Financial Officer James von Moltke said last month. Companies and wealthy clients could see a tiered system with favorable rates up to a certain cap in deposits, while retail clients may end up paying through fees for services, he added.Commerzbank isn’t currently considering passing on the costs to retail clients, CFO Stephan Engels said in September. The lender will have “focused discussions” about doing so with clients who have funds that surpass “certain thresholds,” he said in a Bloomberg TV interview.Danish Banks Giving in to PressureDenmark is another country where the idea is gaining traction. Spar Nord Bank A/S will apply a minus 0.75% rate on deposits exceeding 750,000 kroner ($110,000), it said on Thursday. The move comes after Jyske Bank A/S, Denmark’s second-largest listed lender, said it is doing the same.German citizens save far more of their disposable income than most other Europeans and so the overall impact of such moves could be bigger. The country’s savings rate was around 10% in 2017, almost twice the euro-area average, according to Deutsche Bank. On average, Germans held more than 40% of their financial assets in the form of bank deposits in 2018.One in two Germans would probably change lenders if their own bank resorts to negative rates, according to a study by management consultant Investors Marketing. “Lenders must be aware that they will not easily win back customers they have lost due to these measures,” said Chief Executive Officer Oliver Mihm.(Bank lobby statement added in 8th paragraph)To contact the reporter on this story: Stephan Kahl in Frankfurt at skahl@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Daniel Schaefer at dschaefer36@bloomberg.net, Ross LarsenFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Reuters
Top executives at Italian banks under investigation in diamond probe: document
Prosecutors have wrapped up a probe into alleged fraudulent diamond selling by some of Italy's top banks, having investigated high profile executives working for UniCredit and Intesa Sanpaolo , a prosecutor document showed. The document, seen by Reuters on Wednesday, showed the number of people involved in the probe had risen to 87 from 68 originally under investigation, along with five banks and two diamond brokerages. In a long-running scandal in a sector already tarnished by controversy, Italy's biggest banks are suspected of colluding with diamond brokers to scam their own customers.
- GuruFocus.com
3 High Earnings Return Stocks That Wall Street Suggests Buying
UniCredit SpA tops the list Continue reading...
- Thomson Reuters StreetEvents
Edited Transcript of UCG.MI earnings conference call or presentation 7-Aug-19 8:00am GMT
Q2 2019 UniCredit SpA Earnings Call
