Atlante is an Italian banking sector owned bail-out equity fund that is dedicated to recapitalize some Italian banks, as well as purchase the securities of the junior tranches of non-performing loans. It was established in 2015 in response to the Italian bad debt crisis of that year. The fund was under regulation by the EU Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive.
According to Federico Ghizzoni, former CEO of UniCredit, although the bank may inject €1 billion to the fund, the bank had a priority to sell their bad loan to the fund.[1] UniCredit had about €20 billion net value of bad loans on the balance sheets as of 31 December 2015.[2] Moreover, both UniCredit and Intesa Sanpaolo (via Banca IMI) were already underwritten Banca Popolare di Vicenza and Veneto Banca for a combined €2.5 billion capital increase. The contributions of the fund would make the fund become the buyer of the unsold shares, instead of the banks themselves. As BPVi announced that the new shares would be priced between €3 and €0.1 per share, the fund on behalf of UniCredit would purchase the unsold share for €0.1 only.[3]
It was reported that banking foundations, such as Fondazione Cariplo, Fondazione Cariparo, Compagnia di San Paolo[4] and Fondazione CRT,[5] which in previous banking reforms were forced to sell their banking subsidiaries (forced to diversify investments),[6] were invited to invest in the fund.[7][8] According to ACRI, the foundations had €40 billion shareholders' equity,[9] with most of them no longer owning their banks in majority or entirely sold. Fondazione Cariplo, a shareholder of Intesa Sanpaolo and the management firm of the fund, had a shareholders' equity of €8.9 billion.[10]
On 29 April 2016 Quaestio announced that the fund had collected €4.249 billion from 67 investors including Cassa Depositi e Prestiti.[11]
- ^ "UniCredit CEO Sees Putting Up to $1.1 Billion in Italy Bank Fund". Bloomberg. 15 April 2016. Retrieved 16 April 2016.
- ^ "2015 Progetto Bilancio Consolidato" [2015 Draft Consolidated Reports and Accounts] (PDF) (in Italian). UniCredit. 22 March 2016. Retrieved 16 April 2016.
- ^ "Press Release". UniCredit. 20 April 2016. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
- ^ "Fondo Atlante, già 3,4 miliardi in arrivo da banche, fondazioni, Cdp Intesa Sanpaolo cederà sofferenze". Corriere della Sera (in Italian). 17 April 2016. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
- ^ "Fondazione Crt, deliberata adesione a fondo Atlante per 50 mln -fonte". Reuters (in Italian). 18 April 2016. Archived from the original on 18 April 2016. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
- ^ "Intesa's top shareholder seeking adviser to sell 4 pct stake". Reuters. 7 October 2015. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
- ^ "Italy's Atlas fund struggles to stop sky falling on banks". Reuters. 15 April 2016. Retrieved 15 April 2016.
- ^ "Italy sets up bank rescue fund". BBC. 11 April 2016. Retrieved 15 April 2016.
- ^ "VENTESIMO RAPPORTO SULLE FONDAZIONI DI ORIGINE BANCARIA 2014" (in Italian). ACRI. 28 September 2015. Retrieved 15 April 2016.
- ^ "2014 Bilancio" (PDF) (in Italian). Fondazione Cariplo. 5 May 2015. Retrieved 16 April 2016.
- ^ "Presentazione" [Presentation] (PDF) (in Italian). Quaestio Capital Management. 29 April 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 June 2016. Retrieved 1 May 2016.