Questio, the management company
of the Atlante bank bailout fund, on Friday wrote to the boards
of Banca Popolare di Vicenza and Veneto Banca suggesting they
should consider a merger in the business plans they have to put
to the European central Bank by the end of the year.
"In the framework of the plan it is opportune for the two
banks to assess a possible merger scenario and clearly identify
synergies with respect to a stand-alone situation," Quaestio
said.
Quaestio said the business plans should aim for a
"definitive relaunch" of the two Veneto banks.
The Banca Popolare di Vicenza said Wednesday it would have
to shed 1,300-1,500 jobs as part of a restructuring essential to
its survival after a recent bail-out.
"We must convince the trade union organisations that we
have these redundancies, for which we have to find a solution,"
said the bank's president, Gianni Mion.
He said these were "structural" redundancies, it isn't a
temporary thing".
"We're not in a position to wait".
Last month the recently bailed-out bank posted a
795-million-euro loss in the first half of the year.
The balance sheet was weighed down, a statement said, by
an increase in credit cover, the effects of the "contested exit"
of Cattolica from the insurance market, and the litigation risk
linked to new shares.
Without these factors, the loss would have been 85 million
euros, the bank said.
As for Veneto Banca, also bailed out by Atlante, it was
set for a listing this summer but that was nixed because of poor
demand.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA