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☆ Venice's waters turn fluorescent green near Rialto Bridge
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] Venice's waters turn green due to an unknown substance near the Rialto Bridge, in Venice, Italy in this handout image released May 28, 2023. Vigili del Fuoco/Handout via REUTERSMILAN, May 28 (Reuters) - The waters in Venice's main canal turned fluorescent green on Sunday in the area near the Rialto bridge and authorities are seeking to trace the cause, Italy's fire department said. The Venice prefect has called an emergency meeting of police forces to understand what happened and study possible countermeasures, the Ansa news agency reported. The incident echoes recent episodes in Italy where environmental groups have been colouring monuments, including using vegetable charcoal to turn the waters of Rome's Trevi fountain black in a protest against fossil fuels. However, unlike previous cases, no activist group has come forward to claim responsibility for what happened in Venice.

☆ Italy PM says good ties with China possible without Belt and Road
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

MILAN, May 28 (Reuters) - Good relations with China are possible even without being part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) deal, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said in an interview published on Sunday, as her government weighs abandoning the project. Italy is the only major Western country to have joined China's BRI scheme, which envisions rebuilding the old Silk Road to connect China with Asia, Europe and beyond with large infrastructure spending. Meloni noted that while Italy was the only one of the Group of Seven (G7) rich democracies to have signed the Belt and Road memorandum, it was not the European and Western country with the strongest economic and trade ties with China. Earlier this month a senior Italian government official told Reuters Italy was highly unlikely to renew the Belt and Road deal. China is among the biggest markets for most countries in the G7 group, particularly for export-reliant economies such as Japan and Germany.

☆ Big 'Ted Lasso' fan Guardiola could not pass up chance at cameo
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-26 | by ( Lori Ewing | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

MANCHESTER, England, May 26 (Reuters) - As a big fan of Apple TV's popular soccer comedy "Ted Lasso", Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola said he was happy to appear as himself on the show's penultimate episode that aired this week. "As a family, my little daughter Valentina and my wife, we enjoy a lot to watch the show," Guardiola told a press conference on Friday. "We are big fans, and when they offered a cameo, I said why not and I could meet the actors. The fictional AFC Richmond beat City in the episode called "Mom City", and Lasso, played by Jason Sudeikis, and Guardiola shake hands after the game ends. The scene was shot before an actual City game at the Etihad and the cast and crew returned to watch a recent game there.

☆ ION unlocks financing to finalise Italy's Prelios buy-sources
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

ION has been in talks for months with U.S. investment fund Davidson Kempner to acquire Prelios, a bad loan specialist which DK took private in 2018. While not all of the banks have completed all the necessary internal steps to approve the financing the sources said the finalisation of the deal was imminent. A stalemate over the duration of the financing has been overcome through a 'bridge to bond' structure with a longer maturity than usual, one of the sources said. 'Bridge to bond' financing normally requires the borrower to tap markets within 12-18 months to repay the loan. ION has a single-B credit rating - below the 'BBB' investment grade threshold - by Moody's and S&P Global, according to Refinitiv data.

☆ Mediobanca sells bad loan purchase business ahead of new plan
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Banca IFIS (IF.MI) agreed to buy Revalea, a unit Mediobanca set up last year by separating purchasing from management of bad debts. It was the second deal announced by Mediobanca in days as it prepares to present a new business plan through 2026 on Wednesday. Revalea, with a staff of 22, holds 6.8 billion euros in unsecured bad loans, which have a net book value (NBV) of 256 million euros. However, by freeing the bank of bad loans, the deal will add around 10 basis points to core capital, it said. The acquisition will allow IFIS to achieve a bad loan purchase target of 30 billion euros in gross terms and 1.8 billion net set out under its 2022-2024 plan.

☆ ECB eyes additional steps to tackle bank deposit risks
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The ECB said it was actively working with other global supervisors to understand which lessons could be learnt. "It may be beneficial to explore how factors such as high deposit base concentration and a predominant reliance on uninsured deposits could be dealt with in the Pillar 2 framework," the ECB said. The ECB can impose additional capital and liquidity requirements if it sees fit. It would use liquidity requirements to address liquidity risks. The Pillar 2 liquidity framework focuses on liquidity risks that are not fully addressed by Pillar 1 requirements: the Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR) and the Net Stable Funding Ratio (NSFR).

☆ Pent-up demand promises record tourist season for southern Europe
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Giselda Vagnoni | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

What's more, there appears to be growing demand for the luxury end of the spectrum. Portugal registered more than 2.8 million of foreign visitors from January to March, the best first quarter on record, according to official data. Airlines such as Lufthansa, easyJet and Ryanair have confirmed robust summer bookings while Ryanair, in anticipation of strong demand, has just ordered 150 new 737 Max-10s and optioned another 150. Italian travel and tourism company Alpitour forecasts turnover 30% higher this year. "We already see a very strong demand to book Christmas holidays in 2023.

☆ Mediobanca buys Arma Partners to boost tech advisory offer
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Valentina Za | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The acquisition, which Mediobanca expects to boost its fee income by 10%, comes ahead of a new three-year strategy CEO Alberto Nagel will unveil on May 24. In the same year, it advised Germany's Aareal Bank (ARLG.DE) on the sale of a stake in its $1.1 billion software unit Aareon to Advent International. The deal will boost earnings per share, based on last year's figures, Mediobanca said, without elaborating. With 86 staff and some $100 million in yearly revenue, Arma was founded in 2003 by Paul-Noël Guély, a former head of software and services investment banking at Goldman Sachs. Arma has offices also in Munich, a U.S. presence and a network of affiliated advisory firms in Japan, Australia, Israel, Turkey and Brazil.

☆ Italy's birth rate is at a record low. Young Italians say they can't afford to have babies
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Barbie Latza Nadeau Valentina Di Donato Antonia Mortensen | Barbie Latza Nadeau | Valentina Di Donato | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

The birth rate in Italy has been declining steadily since the economic crisis in 2008, for reasons demographers agree is rooted in economic insecurity. In France, the birth rate is higher at 1.8 children per woman, according to figures for 2022 from its national statistics agency. The Catholic Church, which is a predominant political force, and the right-wing government under Meloni have both lamented the low birth rate, but have put up roadblocks to ways to remedy the situation. De Luca blames the government for not doing enough for the younger generation, in part because decades of low birth rates have made the youth a minority. Testa fears that the low birth rate is contagious.

☆ Italy's Intesa embraces AI to tame bank supervision "information overload"
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MILAN, May 16 (Reuters) - Intesa Sanpaolo (ISP.MI) has introduced an artificial intelligence tool it has designed to wade through thousands of publications on banking supervision, Italy's biggest bank said on Tuesday. The machine learning tool, dubbed Lisa or Linguistic Intelligence for Supervisory Awareness, uses language processing algorithms to scan documents for correlations and patterns of meaning to help predict future trends. Intesa has a dedicated team of people who worked with Lisa, validating its results but also expanding its awareness of banking regulatory issues. "Banking supervision is an area where it is fair to speak of information overload, with truly massive and exponential content production," said Walter Chiaradonna, head of Intesa's supervisory strategic steering department. Chiaradonna listed "practices, interviews, statements, texts and in-depth studies that in turn generate a proliferation of information that is unmanageable without adequate support."

"Our commitment to Juventus is unchanged and no meetings have taken place," a spokesperson for Exor said when asked to comment by Reuters on Friday. Juventus also faces potential new penalties, including further points deductions, in a separate case over alleged irregularities in payments to players. The Agnelli family has owned the club, which it listed in 2001, almost uninterrupted since 1923. New potential co-investors could include Middle Eastern or Asian sovereign wealth funds, or U.S. funds or family offices, two sources said. Juventus ranked 11th in Deloitte's European Money League published in January, based on its annual revenue of 400 million euros in 2021/22.

☆ Hobbit houses spring up in Bosnia hills
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-11 | by ( Daria Sito-Sucic | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

KRESEVO, Bosnia, May 11 (Reuters) - Four sisters are building the first Hobbit-style village in southeast Europe in the green hills of central Bosnia, hoping to attract fans of "The Lord of the Rings" books and movies as well as sharing their childhood memories. Last year Marija, a 28-year-old geology engineer, proposed to her sisters Milijana, Vedrana and Valentina that they build house in the style of the Hobbit homes in J.R.R. The sisters decided that their houses must include characteristics of the area where they live and that each sister would decorate one dwelling as she likes. [1/5] Milijana Milicevic stands in front of the hobbit house named "Lipa", in the Bosnian Hobbiton village, Rakova Noga, Bosnia and Herzegovina, May 9, 2023. The other three houses, which should be completed soon, will also be named after local attractions.

Rome/London CNN —Italy’s government convened crisis talks Thursday to investigate the reasons behind a surge in prices for pasta, one of the country’s most beloved and culturally important foods. Pasta inflation moderated a bit in April but prices were still up 16.5% over 12 months. Pasta prices have soared despite the price of wheat — the main ingredient — falling in recent months. The price of durum wheat — a type of wheat popular among Italian pasta-makers — has fallen 30% since May 2022. Making pasta only requires mixing water with the wheat, the group said, giving “little justification” for the huge increase in retail prices.

☆ Italy's Digital Value sees sales above 1 bln euros by 2025-adviser
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MILAN, May 10 (Reuters) - Italian digital services provider Digital Value (DGV.MI) expects to drive sales above 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) by 2025 thanks to rising tech investments by businesses and the public administration, a strategic adviser to the firm said. "It is a target we can achieve," Marco Patuano, a veteran Italian executive who sits on Digital Value's board, told reporters. Such a move could help Digital Value, which specialises in providing digital infrastructure services to big corporate and public administration clients, to play an active role in the sector's consolidation, Patuano said. He said he had received a waiver to keep his board seat at Digital Value and his role as strategic adviser to the company. ($1 = 0.9084 euros)Reporting by Elvira Pollina; editing by Valentina ZaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

[1/5] Teacher Inese Rudzite stands in front of Russian citizens during the Latvian language learning class in Riga, Latvia May 2, 2023. Speaking Russian instead of Latvian has not been a problem until now, but the war in Ukraine changed the picture. He said the test was needed because Russian authorities justified their invasion of Ukraine by the need to protect Russian nationals abroad. "I think that learning Latvian is right, but this pressure is wrong," Sevastjanova said. But now I end up learning Latvian instead.

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailThis 22-year-old won $2 million in scholarships, graduated from Princeton and lives debt-free in NYCGabriella Carter, 22, lives debt-free in New York City. In high school and college, she won $2 million in scholarships and graduated from Princeton without student loans. Carter is the founder of Growing with Gabby, a business that helps other students secure scholarships. Last year, she made $133,000 between her business, her corporate job and interest income. Going forward, Carter plans to expand Growing with Gabby and create more content about money in general.

The young entrepreneur made waves as a teenager by scoring over $2 million in college scholarships, which allowed her to graduate debt-free from Princeton University in 2022. Through brand deals, digital products and private consultations, her business, Growing With Gabby, earned $177,000 in 2022. Gabby Carter, 22, earned $133,000 last year from her corporate job and her business, Growing with Gabby. But throughout high school and during college, she won 35 different scholarship awards totaling over $2 million — enough to graduate debt-free and with over $100,000 in savings. "That made people very curious about how I was able to have scholarship success."

☆ Italian bank Intesa raises profit target after beating forecasts
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Valentina Za | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

The lender forecast 7 billion euros ($7.7 billion) in net profit this year, having said in February that it would top last year's result of 5.5 billion euros. The upgrade comes after fellow heavyweight UniCredit (CRDI.MI) raised its 2023 profit target this week by more than a fifth. Intesa reported first-quarter net income of 1.96 billion euros, far above a 1.54 billion euro consensus in analyst forecasts compiled by Reuters. Total revenue topped expectations at 6.06 billion euros, up 7% from the previous quarter. However, it said the boost from higher rates would continue to drive profit higher and forecast more than 13 billion euros in net interest income this year.

ROME, May 5 (Reuters) - Italy's Treasury is open to reducing its 64% stake in Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) (BMPS.MI) through one or more share sales on the market, three people briefed on the matters told Reuters. After rescuing MPS at a cost of 5.4 billion euros ($6 billion) for taxpayers, Rome pumped another 1.6 billion into the Tuscan bank last November when it covered 64% of a 2.5 billion euro capital raise. MPS had to raise fresh capital to fund staff exits and replenish its capital reserves after the Treasury failed to clinch a sale of the bank to UniCredit (CRDI.MI) in 2021. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said several times that MPS's privatisation should foster the creation of several large banking groups in the country. ($1 = 0.9081 euros)Reporting by Giuseppe Fonte in Rome and Valentina Za in Milan; Editing by Susan FentonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Adviser to Italy's Treasury tables proposal for windfall tax on banks
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Giuseppe Fonte | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

European lenders have consistently beaten expectations in recent quarters as higher rates set by the European Central Bank (ECB) to curb inflation have driven profits higher, while leaving savers disgruntled. Government sources said last week that Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti was working on a windfall tax on banks to fund relief measures for families hit by inflation, which is running above the euro zone average. Giorgetti told parliament that the government "cannot and will not" ignore the fact that banks have seen revenues increase due to higher interest rates, but have not adjusted rates on deposits accordingly. UniCredit (CRDI.MI) CEO Andrea Orcel confirmed on Wednesday that there were discussions ongoing in Italy about a new tax on banks' profits, but there was no certainty it would be introduced. Madrid is planning to raise around 6 billion euros ($6.63 billion) from a windfall tax on energy companies and banks.

☆ UniCredit to use 300 mln euro charges for staff exits-sources
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

In reporting stronger-than-expected quarterly results, UniCredit on Wednesday raised its 2023 profit goal above 6.5 billion euros ($7.2 billion) and said the figure included 300 million euros in restructuring charges it would book mostly in the second quarter. UniCredit last year invited applications from staff who wanted to retire early and were within five years of qualifying for a pension. On Dec. 1 it signed an accord with unions and booked 239 million euros in charges to fund voluntary exits to be replaced by younger hires. Eager to protect its branch network, UniCredit allocated 80% of the 2022 early retirement packages to people from its central offices, raising complaints from unions, the source added. UniCredit underwent years of restructuring under CEO Jean Pierre Mustier, but cost cuts remain a key plank of new CEO Andrea Orcel's strategy.

Lenders wasted little time in charging more for loans when interest rates rapidly rose from an almost 15-year slumber around zero last year, but most have dragged their feet on boosting deposit rates paid to millions of their customers. Money market funds are proving popular among savers seeking bigger returns on their cash as high levels of inflation persist. Data from Refinitiv Lipper showed more than 34 billion euros ($37.6 billion) of net flows into European money market funds in March, the best-selling asset type that month. Fidelity International also reported an 8% year-on-year uplift in flows into money market funds on its investment platform between Jan. 1 and April 26. Some lawmakers have criticised banks for the mismatch between what they charge borrowers and the interest rates offered to savers.

☆ Italy's Poste CEO says firms to use balance sheet in Eurovita rescue
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MILAN, May 4 (Reuters) - Italian banks and insurers that are being called upon to rescue struggling life group Eurovita will help by using their balance sheet, Poste Italiane's CEO said on Thursday, without elaborating. The Poste Italiane chief executive said all the main Italian insurers and banks distributing products by Cinven-owned Eurovita were working on a possible solution. "Everybody would use their balance sheet instead of funding a recapitalisation," he said, adding he could not explain more. Italian authorities have taken over management of Eurovita and are working on brokering a rescue after strong-arming Cinven into pumping 100 million euros of capital into the insurer. For insurers that rely on banks and financial advisers for their distribution, redemptions totalled 119% of premiums.

☆ UniCredit raises 2023 goals after stronger-than-expected quarter
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Valentina Za | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

UniCredit forecast a 2023 profit above 6.5 billion euros ($7.2 billion), up from January guidance that broadly matched its 2022 result of 5.2 billion euros. Net profit in the first three months came in at 2.06 billion euros, well above an average analyst forecast of 1.3 billion euros in a bank-provided consensus, boosted by an 18% yearly jump in revenues. Net interest income in the quarter topped expectations rising 43.6% year-on-year to 3.3 billion euros. Net fees also unexpectedly strengthened 10.7% from the previous quarter, surpassing forecasts at 2.0 billion euros. "There are a number of opportunities we see across Europe [but] financially we still represent the best value proposition for our investors," he said.

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