Milan in decline with banks and Eni-Corriere.it

Weak stock markets in the Old Continent after the flurry of European PMI indices lower than analysts’ estimates. The heaviest list is that of Frankfurt which drops by 0.6%, followed by Milan with a drop of around half a percentage point. Down by 0.2% Paris and 0.1% London and Amsterdam (here the trends in real time). Moscow’s price lists were weak, down by about one percentage point.

Spreads and BTPs

On the other hand, yields on European government bonds are strongly contained, with the rate on the ten-year BTP losing 13 basis points, even falling below 4%, a level it has not touched since 20 March. The simultaneous drop in yields on bonds throughout Europe does not particularly affect spreads, with the differential with respect to Germany at 162 `basis points.

Piazza Affari: the banks are down

The fall in government bond rates weakens the banking groups, which hold large amounts of them, and in Piazza Affari Bper and Intesa lose 1.7%. The heaviest stock among the largest on the Milan stock exchange is Saipem, however, down by two percentage points, while Hera and Italagas rose by 1.4%. Tim, after a positive start on the exclusive to Kkr for the negotiations on the network, wavers around parity.

The Eni case

Eni discounts the weakness of oil prices together with the entire European oil sector (the Stoxx energy sub-index -1.8% with Wti at -1.8% and Brent at -1.7%), even if analysts promote the acquisition of Neptune. Prices drop by 1.33% to 12.714 euros. Before the opening of the market, Eni and Var Energi (a company 63% owned by Eni) announced the acquisition of Neptune, a leading independent company in exploration and production, with a global portfolio of mainly gas assets and activities in Western Europe, North Africa, Indonesia and Australia.

Under the agreed terms, Neptune Global Business will have an enterprise value of $2.6 billion, while Neptune Norway Business will have an enterprise value of approximately $2.3 billion, for a total of $4.9 billion. , equal to approximately 4.5 billion euros. From the operation Eni expects to generate synergies in terms of structural and industrial costs equal to over 500 million dollars. The analysts of Equita explain: We believe that the transaction has positive implications for the share as the operational complementarity of the acquisition with Eni/Var Energi is significant, the acquisition takes place at values ​​slightly lower than the 5-6 billion dollars assumed by the previous rumors and we preliminarily estimate a contribution of free cash flow from Neptune Energy at 500-600 million euros at commodity market prices, or an incremental 7%-9% of Eni’s FCF, commented Equita analysts. The acquisition, they add from Banca Akros, is consistent with Eni’s strategy and will generate consistent synergies.