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☆ Italy's post office invests $1.3 bln to refurbish branches
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

ROME, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Italy's post office Poste Italiane (PST.MI) plans to invest 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) of mostly public money to renovate 7,000 outlets across the country, aiming to help older people in small towns who are struggling to access public services online. Poste said it would tap a fund financed by the Italian state for 800 million euros and add half that amount of its own money to refurbish thousands of post offices, with a particular focus on towns with less than 5,000 people. Under the terms of the plan, the renovated post offices will provide less digitally savvy customers with machines to access online services within branches, with staff assistance. The revamped post offices would include 4,000 stations for people to obtain documents such as ID cards and passports, or access the land registry. ($1 = 0.9192 euros)Reporting by Valentina Za in Milan and Alvise Armellini in Rome; Editing by Gavin Jones and Jan HarveyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Goldman Sachs among investors interested in financing Italy's Serie A - sources
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] The Goldman Sachs logo is displayed on a post above the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, September 11, 2013. REUTERS/Lucas JacksonMILAN, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs (GS.N) is one of various fund and bank investors that have expressed interest in financing the growth of the media business of Italy's top-flight soccer league, two people with knowledge of the matter said on Friday. The two people said Goldman Sachs had come forward in October, but news of its interest emerged only after Reuters reported on Thursday rival U.S. bank JPMorgan (JPM.N) had offered up to 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) in financing to Serie A.Bloomberg first reported news of Goldman's interest. Goldman did not immediately reply to a request for comment. ($1 = 0.9211 euros)Reporting by Elvira Pollina; writing by Valentina ZaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ 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.

☆ 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.

☆ 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.

☆ 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.

☆ This Salad Recipe Makes a Hearty Meatless Meal
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Kitty Greenwald | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

IF A CHOPPED SALAD sounds like a sad, unsatisfying desk lunch, read on. The final Slow Food Fast recipe from chef Mike Solomonov brings new oomph to the classic Israeli salad of chopped tomatoes and cucumbers with the addition of olives, peppers, roasted chickpeas, bagel chips and feta cheese. “This you actually eat as a meal,” Mr. Solomonov said. “In America they may call this an Israeli salad; in Israel it’s mostly called an Arabic salad,” he said. “With the bagel chips, it’s a bit like a fattoush.” Tart sumac and za’atar, the fragrant blend of dried herbs and sesame seeds, give it punch.

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.

☆ Analysis: Italy's cash payments U-turn is all gain, no pain
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Valentina Za | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Italy is scrapping from the draft budget a provision on retailers who refuse card payments that limits fines to transactions worth more than 60 euros ($64). A one percentage point increase in the use of cash leads to a 0.8-1.8 percentage point rise in undeclared value added tax (VAT), Italy's central bank found. "The government's U-turn on card payments marks a victory for consumers and the country," Italian consumer group Unione Nazionale Consumatori President Massimiliano Dona said. Nearly 73% of respondents in a 2022 survey by The European House-Ambrosetti's Cashless Society wished to reduce cash payments to improve speed and security, up from 60% in 2020. To defend the plan, the government has criticised the cost of digital payments saying cafe owners can hardly accept cards for 1.1 euro a cup espressos.

☆ Italy prosecutors seek trial for ex-MPS top execs in bad loan probe
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Both Profumo and Tononi in the past chaired Monte dei Paschi's board of directors. The prosecutors in the statement said they were not requesting a trial for Monte dei Paschi. Prosecutors have been looking into allegations of false accounting and market manipulation in relation to the classing of loans as impaired at Monte dei Paschi up to 2017. Lawyers for Profumo, Tononi and the other two people did not immediately reply to a request for comment from Reuters. A judge will decide on the request for trial at a hearing in the near future.

☆ ECB sets core capital threshold for Italy's Intesa at 8.88% from 8.81%
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

MILAN, Dec 15 (Reuters) - The European Central Bank has set the minimum threshold for Intesa Sanpaolo's (ISP.MI) core capital at 8.88% for next year, fractionally higher than the current 8.81% requirement, Italy's biggest bank said on Thursday. Intesa's best-quality capital ratio stood at 12.4% at the end of September applying in full regulations which are still being phased in. Reporting by Valentina Za, editing by Gianluca SemeraroOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Citi to cut as many as 50 bankers in EMEA - sources
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MILAN, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Citigroup (C.N) is cutting as many as 50 jobs in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, two people close to the matter said. Citi declined to comment on the figure, which provides the strongest indication yet of how deep proposed cuts will run as dealmaking slumps, hit by the Ukraine war, higher interest rates and soaring inflation. Citi employs around 6,000 people across banking, capital markets and advisory activities globally. One of the sources said most of the cuts would affect people in director roles, with some managing directors also set to exit. Reporting by Valentina Za in Milan and Andres Gonzalez in London Editing by Mark PotterOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

NEW YORK, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Sonnedix and Cubico, two renewable energy developers, are competing to buy Chilean solar power assets that Italy's Enel (ENEI.MI) has put on the block to help trim debt, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Consisting of around 500 megawatts (MW) of operating and newly built sites, the portfolio is expected to fetch up to 1 billion euros ($1 billion). Enel and Cubico declined to comment. Pension and infrastructure funds have been buying stakes in low-carbon energy generation for many years, attracted by their predictable returns. Additional reporting by Valentina Za and Francesca Landini in Milan; editing by Cynthia OstermanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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