Italy

UniCredit’s chief executive, Jean Pierre Mustier, moved fast this week to sell €1bn of stock in FinecoBank, the Italian bank’s online brokerage, after a decision to deconsolidate the unit. Many in the market see UniCredit's accelerating asset sales as an effort to boost its capital position before exploring M&A opportunities in 2020. Aidan Gregory reports.

UniCredit surprised investors with its speed when it sold a €1bn block in FinecoBank on Tuesday — the same day it announced that it would seek to reduce its stake in the online brokerage.

The formal separation of FinecoBank, the Italian online brokerage, from UniCredit has begun with Italy’s biggest bank selling almost half stake to institutional investors via an equity block trade – a strategy UniCredit has used numerous times in the past to shed non-core assets under its CEO Jean-Pierre Mustier.

FinecoBank may look to boost its leverage ratio with a €200m issuance of additional tier one securities in the coming months, as part of plans for the entity to operate independently from the UniCredit group.

The public sector bond market is braced for S&P’s review of Italy’s credit rating this Friday. Investor analysts said a downgrade would result in a “material widening” of BTPs if the sovereign fell to just one notch above investment grade.

The elimination of Juventus from football's Champions League on April 16 wiped €390m off its market capitalisation by the following morning, highlighting the risks of owning equity in Europe’s premier football clubs.

Nexi, the Italian payments company, has fallen by almost 8% on its first day of trading after its Milan IPO last week. High volume selling at the beginning of the day has hurt the stock.

Banco BPM split opinion with a debut additional tier one bond this week, paying up to issue but proving that there’s a chance for the middle tier of Italy to access the market. The bank joined only two other Italians in having sold deals in the asset class — the national champion banks Intesa Sanpaolo and UniCredit, writes David Freitas.

Banco BPM hit the euro market on Thursday with its first additional tier one (AT1), becoming only the third Italian bank to sell a deal in the asset class following national champions Intesa Sanpaolo and UniCredit.

Nexi, the Italian payments firm listing in Milan, is to price its IPO at €9 a share, just off the bottom of its initial price range.

The undersupplied European high yield market saw a strong start on Monday, as banks announced new deals from Ineos and Italmatch.

Investors turned their attention to UBI Banca on Wednesday as it issued its debut green bond, sending a clear message about their demand for the product. Two other European banks are already set to follow in the Italian bank’s footsteps.