Unipol is ready to support the investee Banca Popolare di Sondrio “if it wants to grow with aggregations or to defend it if it is attacked”. And what the CEO of the Bologna-based insurance company, Carlo Cimbri, clarified today during the Insurance Summit of Il Sole 24 Ore. “With Sondrio we can do much more, even just with the distribution of insurance products. The choices are made by the bank, so if the bank wants to grow through aggregations we will evaluate with them if we can support them. If, on the other hand, it wants to remain in the current configuration we will be satisfied “, explained Cimbri, highlighting that” ours is a long-term shareholder presence (it holds about 9% of the bank’s capital, ed),
Cimbri remains open to banking risk, but Unipol will evaluate participation in any consolidation transactions only if they are additive in terms of value and expansion of its distribution network, in line with its strategies. “We are a private group, we pursue the interests of investors. If there can be incremental operations, we will evaluate them, both in terms of added value that any banking group can give to the banks in which we participate (it also holds about 19% of Bper Banca, ed), both in terms of the value of the investment that can lead to an expansion of the distribution network “, explained the CEO of Unipol. Therefore, if they have these characteristics, he specified, “as shareholders we will support them if the banks submit them to us. If they do not have them,
Apart from M&A, Unipol will present the new business plan next spring after the current one, expiring at the end of the year, which “exceeds the objectives we had set in terms of development, operating and operating results and shareholder remuneration: for the future we expect competition to remain very high, especially in the TPL sector “, indicated Cimbri, not worried about Generali’s overtaking in the non-life sector after the Cattolica bid:” the sector rankings have never fascinated me, especially when speaks of a few hundredths of a point in market shares. Generali was already a major competitor of ours and remains so. Nothing will change as a result of this operation “.
The goal of the group, he pointed out, “is not the rankings, but always having the capacity and a mass of customers large enough to be able to serve with quality products and with the margins to remunerate the investments of our shareholders. The rankings are passionate about. more laymen than market operators. Quality and profitability remain our polar stars. We are happy with our size in Italy “, he concluded.
Banca Popolare di Sondrio must transform itself into a Spa by the end of the year. The green light of the ECB to the statute for the transformation should arrive in the middle of this month. Once the green light has arrived, the board of directors will call the meeting by 31 December. Once the transformation into a Spa has taken place, the bank will become even more attractive. With this in mind, Bper Banca has been repeatedly indicated as the ideal partner for a merger with Popolare di Sondrio after Unipol bought a 9% stake in Sondrio.
Pending news on the M&A front, on the stock exchange the Banca Popolare di Sondrio share remains impassive in the red (-1% to 3.78 euros), while Unipol rises by 0.16% to € 5.012 and UnipolSai by 0.56% at € 2.52 on the eve of the accounts for the third quarter and the first nine months of 2021 (they will be published tomorrow morning before the market opens). Intesa Sanpaolo expects gross premiums to grow by 10.3% year-on-year (€ 2,796 million, of which € 1,606 million for non-life and € 1,910 million for life) with + 26.5% in life and +0 , 8% in damage.
With regard to projections on pre-tax profit, Intesa Sanpaolo estimates 199 million for UnipolSai in the third quarter (+ 4.4% year on year), with 165 million in non-life (combined ratio at 93% in the third quarter and 92, 8% in the first nine months) and 41 million from life and -7 million from real estate and other activities. 190 million, on the other hand, for Unipol.
While the net result is seen at 133 million (+ 0.6% year on year) in the case of UnipolSai and at 110 million (-5.8%) in the case of Unipol. A slight decrease in the Solvency ratio is also expected from the end of June: 285% for UnipolSai (from 290%) and 211% for Unipol (207% net of the 2019 dividend, paid in October 2021) from 216% at the end of June (212% at net of the 2019 dividend).
“We expect investors to focus primarily on potential indications relating to the technical profitability of the non-life business, for which we see a deteriorating trend, with a combined ratio in the first nine months of 92.8% from 86% in the same period of the year. 2020 “, concluded Intesa Sanpaolo, which recommends the purchase of Unipol (target price at € 5.5), not UnipolSai (rating hold and target price at € 2.5). (All rights reserved)

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