By Valentina Za
MILAN – State-owned Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) on Thursday announced a 2.5 billion euro ($2.6 billion) cash call under new Chief Executive Luigi Lovaglio.
Here is a timeline of key events in the recent history of MPS, whose origins can be traced back to the 15th century.
NOVEMBER 2007 – MPS buys Antonveneta from Santander for 9 billion euros in cash, just months after the Spanish bank paid 6.6 billion euros for it.
JANUARY 2008 – MPS announces a 5 billion euros rights issue, a 950 million euro capital increase reserved to JPMorgan, a 2.16 billion euro Tier2 bond and a 1.56 billion euro bridge loan to fund the Antonveneta deal.
MARCH 2008 – The Bank of Italy, led by Mario Draghi, approves the Antonveneta takeover.
MARCH 2009 – MPS sells 1.9 billion euros in special bonds to Italy’s Treasury to shore up its finances.
JULY 2011 – MPS raises 2.15 billion euros in a rights issue ahead of European stress test results.
SEPTEMBER 2011 – The Bank of Italy provides 6 billion euros in emergency liquidity to MPS as the euro zone sovereign crisis escalates.
MARCH 2012 – MPS posts a 4.7 billion euro 2011 loss after billions of goodwill writedowns on deals including Antonveneta.
MAY 2012 – MPS headquarters searched as prosecutors investigate whether it misled regulators over Antonveneta.
JUNE 2012 – MPS asks Italy’s Treasury to underwrite up to another 2 billion euros in special bonds.
OCTOBER 2012 – Shareholders approve a 1 billion euro share issue targeting new investors.
MARCH 2013 – MPS loses 3.17 billion euros in 2012, hit by plunging Italian government bond prices.
JUNE 2014 – MPS raises 5 billion euros in a rights issue and repays the state 3.1 billion euros.
OCTOBER 2014 – MPS emerges as the worst performer in Europe-wide stress tests.
JUNE 2015 – MPS raises 3 billion euros in cash after a 5.3 billion euro net loss for 2014 on record bad loan writedowns. It repays the remaining 1.1 billion euro state underwritten special bond.
JULY 2016 – MPS announces a new 5 billion euro rights issue and plans to offload 28 billion euros in bad loans as European bank stress tests show it would have negative equity in a slump.
DECEMBER 2016 – MPS turns to the state for help under a precautionary recapitalisation scheme after its cash call fails.
JULY 2017 – After the ECB declares MPS solvent, the EU Commission clears an 8.2 billion euro bailout which hands the state a 68% stake at a cost of 5.4 billion.
OCTOBER 2019 – MPS completes Europe’s biggest bad loan securitisation deal.
MAY 2020 – CEO Marco Morelli steps down and is replaced by 5-Star backed Guido Bastianini.
AUGUST 2020 – Italy sets aside 1.5 billion euros to help MPS as it works to meet an end-2021 re-privatisation deadline.
OCTOBER 2020 – A Milan court convicts MPS’ former CEO and chairman for false accounting in a surprise decision that forces MPS to boost legal risk provisions.
FEBRUARY 2021 – MPS posts 1.69 billion euro loss for 2020 as it opens its books to potential buyers.
JULY 2021 – UniCredit enters exclusive talks to buy “selected parts” of MPS, a day before European banking stress test results show the latter’s capital would be wiped out in a slump.
OCTOBER 2021 – Italy’s talks with UniCredit collapse.
FEBRUARY 2022- Restructuring veteran Luigi Lovaglio named CEO.
MAY 2022 – Overthrowing a previous ruling, appeals court acquit all 13 defendants, as well as Deutsche Bank and Nomura, over derivative deals with MPS.
JUNE 2022 – MPS announces a 2.5 billion euro capital increase for end-October and secures a pre-underwriting accord with banks.
($1 = 0.9493 euros)
(Reporting by Valentina Za; Editing by Alexander Smith and Kirsten Donovan)
