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☆ Exclusive: JPMorgan looking to finance Italy's Serie A for up to 1 bln euros - sources
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Elvira Pollina | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The sources said the 20 clubs which comprise Serie A were informed of the interest by the U.S. bank at a closed-door meeting of their top executives on Thursday. Serie A has been looking at options to extract more money from its media rights, which account for roughly half the revenues of its clubs. Like other European soccer leagues, Serie A lags behind England's Premier League in terms of income and is looking at ways to revive its global appeal. Back in 2021 JPMorgan had offered to support soccer clubs looking to launch a breakaway European Super League, a plan which collapsed due to a storm of protest from fans and politicians. The sources said the Serie A clubs will assess in the coming weeks how to proceed in relation to the interest expressed by both the funds and JPMorgan.

☆ Exclusive: JPMorgan interested in financing Italy Serie A's media business - sources
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

MILAN, Jan 26 (Reuters) - JPMorgan (JPM.N) has written to Italy's top soccer league to express a preliminary interest in supporting the development of Serie A's media business, three people close to the matter said. The sources said the 20 clubs which comprise Serie A were informed of the interest by the U.S. bank at a closed-door meeting of their top executives on Thursday. JPMorgan is expected to be able to provide between 700 million and 1 billion euros in bank financing, one of the people said speaking on condition of anonymity because discussions are not public. JPMorgan and Serie A both declined to comment. Reporting by Elvira Pollina; Additional reporting and writing by Valentina Za; Editing by Alvise ArmelliniOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Rome has been working to renew the "GACS" scheme, which expired in June, while also tightening the terms under which the state provides guarantees to investors who buy bad bank loans repackaged as securities. Under the new terms agreed with the EU, the scheme would cover 80% instead of 100% of the least risky tranche in bad debt securitisation deals, the sources said. The Treasury had also considered hiking a credit rating threshold needed for the senior tranche to qualify for the GACS guarantees, but is instead leaving it unchanged, one of the sources said. Since its launch in 2016, the GACS scheme has rid Italian banks of 117 billion euros ($127 billion) in bad debts by softening the hit from disposals to their earnings. Italy had already tightened the GACS terms in 2019, raising the senior tranche's minimum rating and introducing mechanisms to prod debt collection companies to stick to business plans.

☆ Exclusive: JPMorgan looking to finance Italy's Serie A for up to 1 bln euros -sources
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Elvira Pollina | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The sources said the 20 clubs that comprise Serie A were informed of the interest by the U.S. bank at a closed-door meeting of their top executives on Thursday. Serie A has been looking at options to extract more money from its media rights, which account for roughly half the revenues of its clubs. Like other European soccer leagues, Serie A lags England's Premier League in terms of income and is looking at ways to revive its global appeal. The sources said Serie A clubs learnt on Thursday that Apollo Global Management (APO.N) had also come forward, without providing further details. Prior to that meeting, clubs are due to discuss in mid-February the sale process of the media rights, which is expected to start later this year.

☆ Italy seeks clarification, prompt solution to massive email outage
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MILAN, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Italy's government has sought clarification over an outage that has been affecting nine million users of Internet provider Italiaonline's webmail services since Jan. 23, it said on Wednesday. Answering a query from Reuters, Italiaonline said it had no evidence at present that its problems bore any relation to those suffered on Wednesday by millions of Microsoft (MSFT.O) users. "We expected to restore usage of Libero Mail and Virgilio Mail within the next 24/48 hours," Italiaonline said in a statement. "Given it's an operating system bug it takes time to develop a technical solution, with the primary goal of protecting data integrity," Italiaonline said. Reporting by Elvira Pollina; editing by Valentina Za, Kirsten DonovanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Italy's Lottomatica eyes IPO as Q4 core profit rises at least 7%
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Elisa Anzolin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

It said preliminary results for 2022 showed that it had collected 22.8 billion euros in bets, with revenue of around 1.4 billion euros and earnings before interest, tax, amortisation and depreciation of 458 million-462 million euros. Pro-forma EBITDA stands at 516 million-520 million euros in 2022 when taking into account the acquisition of Italian remote gaming and betting collection company Betflag, which Lottomatica completed in November. Apollo Global Management entered the Italian gaming business in 2019 when it bought a large stake in Gamenet and proceeded to buy out other investors and delist it the next year. The private equity firm invested a further 950 million euros in the sector the following year when Gamenet acquired IGT's (IGT.N) Italian gaming machine, sports betting and digital gaming businesses. These businesses were housed in two companies dubbed Lottomatica Videolot Rete and Lottomatica Scommesse, with a valuation at the time of around 1.1 billion euros including debt.

☆ Italy's Intesa convinces investors on payouts
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Valentina Za | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Investors fretted about the impact on earnings and the bank's ability to stick to generous capital distribution plans, starting with a pending 1.7 billion euro share buyback. Intesa has put the buyback on hold, despite receiving European Central Bank clearance, until approval of 2022 results on Feb. 3. In the fourth quarter, Intesa shed risks on 10.3 billion euros in loans through two so-called synthetic securitisation deals, including a jumbo 8 billion euro transaction. Market calculations put the cost of similar transaction at around 25 million-30 million euros a year for 2 billion euros in assets. Intesa also sold 4 billion euros in leasing contracts.

"How I Met Your Father" season two hits Hulu on January 24. Check out the trailer for 'How I Met Your Father' season 2Hilary Duff ("Lizzie McGuire") stars in "How I Met Your Father" season two as present-day Sophie. How to watch 'How I Met Your Father' season 2You can watch "How I Met Your Father" season two exclusively on Hulu starting January 24, with new episodes set to follow every Tuesday. How many episodes will 'How I Met Your Father' season 2 have? "How I Met Your Father" season two will have 20 episodes in total.

☆ Italy's Intesa reassures investors over capital distribution
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MILAN, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Intesa Sanpaolo (ISP.MI) on Friday sought to reassure investors that it had sufficient capital reserves to see through its shareholder distribution plans, after its shares fell on concerns about reported large asset disposals. Intesa said it expected its best quality capital to stand at around 13% at the end of the year and to remain well above the bank's minimum target of 12% over the course of its business plan "with significant value creation and distribution to shareholders." It added that the reduction in risk-weighted assets that took place in the fourth quarter was due to regulatory changes kicking in on Jan. 1, 2023, which meant the assets in question had a negative impact when comparing the operating income they produced with the cost of capital they required. Reporting by Valentina Za; Editing by Leslie AdlerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Intesa reassures on capital distribution after asset risk worries hit shares
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Valentina Za | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Shares in Intesa fell by 2% after Bloomberg reported Intesa was cutting as much as 20 billion euros ($22 billion) in risk-weighted assets to address supervisory remarks about its inadequate risk models. Intesa said the risk weighted asset (RWA) reduction it had carried out in the fourth quarter related to regulatory changes kicking in from Jan. 1, 2023 and its core capital would land at around 13% at the end of 2022. "We believe that the group is working on RWAs optimisation as well as rationalisation of capital usage in order to face regulatory headwinds (around 45 basis points already communicated) and continue the generous capital distribution that management had in the past." Il Sole said banks had taken action to avoid the capital hit by shifting to capital-light businesses, transferring risks to investors through so-called synthetic securitisation deals or shedding assets altogether. ($1 = 0.9232 euros)Reporting by Valentina Za, editing by Gianluca Semeraro and Keith WeirOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ UniCredit CEO says 'we'll see' when asked about Monte dei Paschi -CNBC
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Monte dei Paschi is 64% owned by the Italian state, which needs to eventually cut its stake to meet re-privatisation commitments given to the European Union at the time of the bailout. "I think Monte dei Paschi has taken a different direction in their strategy. And they've raised their capital, they're rationalising the bank, they're restructuring the bank," Orcel said in an interview with CNBC. So they need to do that, and then we'll see," he said when asked about a Reuters report that UniCredit was still seen as a potential buyer for Monte dei Paschi, alongside Banco BPM (BAMI.MI). Monte dei Paschi raised 2.5 billion euros in capital in December, despite rocky markets, to finance thousands of voluntary staff exits and cut costs.

☆ Italy's Eni, Esso, other firms' offices searched in fuel pricing probe
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MILAN, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Italy's antitrust authority said on Monday it had searched the offices of several oil companies, including Italy's Eni (ENI.MI) and Exxon Mobil Corp's (XOM.N) ESSO Italiana unit, over alleged fuel price violations. The authority, which carried out the inspections with the help of Italy's tax police, said it was probing irregularities concerning prices being charged at the pump which were higher than those advertised, as well as failures in advertising fuel prices. Eni, Esso, Italia Petroli, Kuwait Petroleum Italia and Tamoil allegedly failed to adopt appropriate measures "to prevent and counteract this unlawful conduct to the detriment of consumers", the competition watchdog said in a statement. Fuel prices have taken centre stage in Italy after Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's executive dropped a costly reduction in excise duties introduced by the previous government when the price of petrol exceeded 2 euros per litre. Reporting by Cristina Carlevaro, Francesca Landini, editing by Federico Maccioni, Valentina Za and Emelia Sithole-MatariseOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Nudged by private equity funds, those supplying the booming luxury goods industry are now finding strength in unity. Largely family-owned and small in size, these businesses often struggle to meet the changing needs of the luxury brands they work for. "Luxury brands have been growing exponentially: our customers needed us to grow with them," said Nicola Giuntini, whose Tuscany-based company makes luxury coats and jackets for brands including Celine, Burberry (BRBY.L) and Stella McCartney. PRODUCTION NICHESItaly's manufacturing sector has also been a hunting ground for big luxury brands keen to secure their supply chain. Italian private equity firm XENON International, for example, has bet on producers of materials and finishes for luxury items which it has grouped together in MinervaHub.

☆ Italy's Eni, Esso offices raided in antitrust probe over fuel price breaches
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MILAN, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Italy's antitrust authority said on Monday the offices of several oil companies, including Italy's Eni (ENI.MI) and Exxon Mobil Corp's (XOM.N) ESSO Italiana unit, have been searched over alleged fuel price violations. Eni, Esso, Italia Petroli, Kuwait Petroleum Italia and Tamoil allegedly failed to adopt appropriate measures "to prevent and counteract this unlawful conduct to the detriment of consumers," the competition watchdog said in a statement. Eni had no immediate comment, while the other companies involved were not immediately available for a comment. Fuel prices have taken centre stage in Italy after Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's executive dropped a costly reduction in excise duties introduced by the previous government when the price of petrol exceeded 2 euros per litre. Reporting by Cristina Carlevaro, Francesca Landini, editing by Federico Maccioni and Valentina ZaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Wounded Russians are being sent back to Ukraine with major injuries like punctured lungs and shrapnel still in their bodies, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Joshua Zitser | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Wounded Russian soldiers are being sent to Ukraine to fight despite their injuries, according to a report. Soldiers with damaged lungs and shrapnel wounds have been returned to the frontline. The presidential Human Rights Council in Russia is investigating the matter, a council member said. There have also been cases of soldiers receiving treatment for ulcers, heart attacks, and strokes being sent back to Ukraine, she said. In November, Army Gen. Mark Milley, the highest-ranking US military officer, estimated that "well over" 100,000 Russian soldiers had been killed or wounded in the war in Ukraine, according to The Washington Post.

☆ The Jan. 6-style attack on Brazil's capital came after Bolsonaro followed the Trump election playbook
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( John Haltiwanger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The attack on Brazil's capital came after Bolsonaro closely followed Trump's election playbook. The attack in Brazil's capital came after Bolsonaro followed a near-identical playbook to that of former US President Donald Trump in the lead-up to the fatal January 6 insurrection in Washington, D.C. in 2021. Bolsonaro, like Trump, spread baseless claims of voter fraud ahead of Brazil's presidential election — sowing doubts about the integrity of the electoral process. And, much like Trump, Bolsonaro refused to concede after he was defeated and would go on to skip the inauguration of his successor. In the run-up to Brazil's election, pundits and experts warned that Bolsonaro's rhetoric was setting the stage for the South American country to see its own version of the January 6 riot.

Months into their hunt for an apartment in San Juan, Valentina Valldejuli and her partner, Rafael, pivoted from searching local real estate websites to browsing Facebook Marketplace. Valldejuli was born and raised in Puerto Rico and has lived her entire life in San Juan. I live in this center of an area, but I can just take a ten-minute drive and get to the beach here in Ocean Park in San Juan," she says. Hato Rey is the financial district in San Juan, Puerto Rico. CNBC Make itIn October 2020, the couple found a Facebook Marketplace listing for a three-bedroom, two-bathroom in Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, for $1,000 a month.

☆ Brazil's Lula calls for peace at meetings with Russia, Ukraine representatives
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

SAO PAULO, Dec 31 (Reuters) - Brazilian President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva met on Saturday with representatives of Russia and Ukraine ahead of his inauguration and called for an end to the war between the two countries. Lula, who will be sworn in on Sunday, said on Twitter he had separately met with the speaker of Russia's Federation Council, Valentina Matvienko, and Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko. The two were in Brazil to represent their countries at Lula's inauguration and met both him and his future foreign relations minister, Mauro Vieira, according to pictures shared by the leftist leader. Lula said he told Matvienko that Brazil wishes for "peace and for the parties to find common ground to end the conflict," which began when Moscow sent troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24. Reporting by Gabriel Araujo, Editing by Rosalba O'BrienOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Unlocked is a home tour series focused on how much people across the globe spend on their housing, what they get for the money and what they had to sacrifice to make it happen.

By acquiring MPS, UniCredit could have bridged in part the gap with domestic champion Intesa Sanpaolo (ISP.MI), which overtook it as Italy's top lender in 2020 by buying smaller peer UBI. Such a deal would have further widened the distance between the top two banks and Banco BPM (BAMI.MI), which ranks third with roughly one-fifth of their assets. Sources with knowledge of the matter have told Reuters Banco BPM together with UniCredit remain potential buyers for MPS. On Thursday, Banco BPM CEO Giuseppe Castagna was quoted as saying MPS was "too big a mouthful" for his bank to swallow. Bankers say an MPS deal could help Banco BPM loosen the grip of Credit Agricole (CAGR.PA), the French bank which this year became the single biggest investor in Banco BPM.

☆ Italy's goal is several big banking groups as it works to exit MPS - PM
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

MILAN, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Italy will work to exit the capital of bailed-out lender Monte dei Paschi di Siena (BMPS.MI) with a view to creating a banking landscape with several large groups, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Thursday. Meloni said Monte dei Paschi had been "very badly handled" by previous governments leading to taxpayers spending billions of euros to prop up the Tuscan lender, whose restructuring however "appears rather solid." Italy owns 64% of Monte dei Paschi following a 2017 bailout that cost taxpayers 5.4 billion euros. Rome pumped another 1.6 billion euros into the bank as part of a 2.5 billion euro recapitalisation completed in November. In an interview on Thursday Banco BPM CEO Giuseppe Castagna said Monte dei Paschi was "too big a mouthful" for his bank to swallow.

☆ Italy court ruling allows work on Tuscan LNG terminal to proceed
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/3] A view shows the spot where a floating storage and regasification unit will be set up in front of the port city of Piombino, Italy, October 20, 2022. The court said on Thursday it had scheduled a new hearing on March 8 to assess longer-term safety issues relating to the floating terminal. The infrastructure needs to be operational by April to help Italy replace dwindling Russian gas supplies and to re-fill its gas storage by next winter. The Piombino terminal will have a capacity of 5 billion cubic metres (bcm) and will allow Italian energy groups to increase LNG imports to the country. In Italy there are currently three LNG terminals with a total capacity of nearly 17 bcm.

☆ Italy to cap Monte dei Paschi CEO's annual pay at 240,000 euros
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MILAN, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Italy is preparing to cap at 240,000 euros ($254,496) the yearly pay of top executives hired from 2023 in banks rescued by the state, a move that has bearings for the reappointment of Monte dei Paschi's (MPS) (BMPS.MI) chief executive. After failing to clinch a sale of Monte dei Paschi to UniCredit (CRDI.MI) last year, the Treasury in February hired veteran banker Luigi Lovaglio to lead the Siena-based lender. He runs for reappointment in April when Monte dei Paschi's current board expires. As a bailed out bank, Monte dei Paschi already applies curbs to executives' pay and Lovaglio's fixed pay amounts to 466,000 euros a year with no variable compensation. Under terms Italy agreed with European Union authorities, MPS executives cannot earn more than 10 times the average employee salary.

While the error margins are unlikely to distort euro inflation in the long-term, economists say they could warp inflation expectations if not addressed, at a time when the European Central Bank is raising rates aggressively to tame double-digit inflation. As falling energy prices will take time to be reflected in household contracts, the current methodology will underestimate inflation when energy prices fall, CBS said. More volatility could follow when Germany introduces a cap on energy prices in March, that will also cut costs for January and February retroactively, he said. Eurostat has said that only measures that have a direct impact on energy prices, known to consumers before they purchase the energy, should reflect in inflation calculations. FEEDTHROUGH RISKSWith inflation at 10%, the calculation issues are unlikely to significantly impact the aggregate euro zone inflation print.

☆ Youth in Spain see jobs gain after years of instability
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Belén Carreño | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Youth unemployment rates that reached more than 55% in the years after the financial crisis fell to 31% in the third quarter - against an overall unemployment rate of 12.6%, according to the National Statistics Office, INE. Youth unemployment is a chronic problem in southern European countries. Greece, whose rates of youth unemployment are similar to Spain's, wants to reduce its youth unemployment rate to 18% by 2030 and is introducing subsidies for pension and health fund costs to reduce labour costs, as well as special training programmes. Previously, employers used temporary contracts as a safety net in times of crisis. Before the labour reform, the rate of temporary contracts, which in the last decade has been around 25% of all jobs, resulted in a high turnover of jobs, inflating the overall unemployment rate.

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