the risk of Foundations – Corriere.it starts

Compagnia di San Paolo renews its commitment to the Northwest and to the challenge of new forms of poverty, demographic decline and aging and innovation. The Turin-based foundation, the leading shareholder of Intesa Sanpaolo with 6.26%, will allocate a basic portion to disbursements of 135 million euros, to which 20 million euros will be added for initiatives connected with the implementation of the strategic plan and 25 million euros for special program dedicated to Educating Cities, for a total of 180 million euros. «The challenge is to plan tomorrow today, with courage, to recognize ourselves in the future. In circumstances like these, we must aim to grow as systems: the European system, the national system, that of cities and territories», explained Francesco Profumo, president of the Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation, at the presentation at the Teatro Carignano in Turin, to which the general secretary of the foundation, Alberto Anfossi, participated and was moderated by Ferruccio de Bortoli. «2023 must be the year of the Pnrr. The possibilities of impact in crucial sectors that the resources deriving from the great European program will be able to have are truly great”.

Investments, Intesa Sanpaolo and Cdp

The Turin institution is sailing towards 8 billion in assets: they were 7.5 as at 31 December, but the rush of Intesa shares pushed it to 7.9 as at 30 January. The results presented by CEO Carlo Messina on Friday 3 February make Profumo and Anfossi «very happy with how 2022 ended for Intesa Sanpaolo, they are beyond expectations. For us it is a very positive element. This is the result of top quality management, which is the central element for obtaining results such as those presented last week and which place the bank among the top three largest». The Company’s stake in the bank «net of the first tranche of the buyback is constant, therefore it has grown slightly considering the buyback», Anfossi then specified, who also illustrated the update of the institution’s portfolio, managed by Fondaco: «We have approved a responsible investment document and made a “review” to get ESG scores. In doing so, we exited investments that did not respect the environmental, social, governance issues, and in private equity funds we instead contemplate an investment in a lithium battery factory in Sweden (Northvolt, ed)». The judgment on the management and work of Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, of which the institution is a minority shareholder, was also positive (the foundations hold a total of 15.9%, the Company 1.6%).

Change of statute

The Savoy foundation is also working on a revision of the statute for the election of its leaders (the current ones expire in spring 2024). However, the works of the Commission «have not yet been concluded – informs Profumo -. So we haven’t done any formal act yet. The works are going well, there are no particular upheavals. It is an extraordinary maintenance, but it falls within ordinary forms ». “We want to make a transition to the ministry and then approve it. We are a reference and the fact that we are moving towards certain solutions can be an indication for other foundations. Going from the ministry is very important because it allows us to work in serenity». It is probable that the nomination process is similar to that of Cariplo, with a request to candidates for a greater valorisation of skills by areas of intervention of the institution.

The aggregations

If Profumo branded the hypothetical merger between the Compagnia and fellow citizen Crt as fantasies, he was instead more concrete on the mergers between banks in crisis supported by the government: the Ministry of the Economy has in fact sent two letters to start the process, one is was allocated to the Cassa di Risparmio and Banca del Monte di Lugo Foundation, the other to the Estense Foundation (formerly the Carife Foundation, an offshoot of the former Carife bought by Bper at the time of the bail-in of Banca Etruria, Banca Marche and Carichieti). «In the stability law there is a provision which provides for small foundations, which have a conditionality, i.e. assets below 50 million and a 30% reduction in the disbursing capacity in the last five years, an accompaniment, through a tax credit of 6 million, towards the possibility that there is an aggregating and an aggregate foundation. The difficulties are on aggregating. In terms of aggregates, there are 9 foundations in Italy. None in Piedmont, 5 in Emilia-Romagna, 1 in Tuscany, the others between Marche and Umbria», underlines Profumo who is also number one in Acri. «The ministry sent the first two letters – revealed the president – the process started from the formal point of view. From a substantial point of view we have to wait a few months to understand if the conditions are there for this to happen. The rule is very clear», he added, noting that «in the spirit of the rule there is that aggregating and aggregating act on fairly neighboring territories and in our case there are none».