MILAN, Oct 3 (Reuters) – New restructuring commitments agreed by Italy and the European Union over state-owned bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) (BMPS.MI) include disposals worth up to 400 million euros ($391 million), a document showed on Monday.
The text of the EU Commission’s decision that extended an end-2021 deadline for Rome to sell its stake in the Tuscan bank also showed Italy had committed to keeping the management of its holdings in various state-owned banks separate.
After failing to clinch a sale of MPS to UniCredit last year, Italy has secured a new deadline to re-privatise the bank it rescued in 2017 from the EU agreeing to new restructuring goals.
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MPS needs to carry out property disposals worth 100 million euros and sell non-core equity holdings, including stakes in ATM-machine operator Bancomat and credit card firm Visa (V.N), which had a value of 250-300 million euros at the end of last year, the document said.
The bank has also failed to meet an existing commitment to reduce its leasing portfolio, which stood at 3.3 billion euros at the end of last year, or 700 million euros above target, the EU said in its decision.
“The bank shall carry on a deleveraging of its leasing portfolio, also by means of sale of assets,” it added.
MPS aims to offload leasing contracts by the end of the year by joining forces with other Italian banks on a bad loan securitisation transaction worth in aggregate 1 billion euros, a source close to the matter told Reuters.
The securitisation deal would make use of a state guarantee scheme which is in the process of being renewed.
To meet cost-reduction targets Italy agreed with the EU, which set a cost-to-income ratio of 60% in 2024, MPS aims to launch an up to 2.5 billion euro new share issue later this month.
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Reporting by Valentina Za and Giuseppe Fonte; editing by Agnieszka Flak and David Evans
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SINGAPORE, Sept 30 (Reuters) – Singapore’s Temasek Holdings (TEM.UL) said that market valuations had not yet priced in a global economic recession and that said the state investor was waiting for further declines before stepping up investments.
“Current valuations are not reflecting the risk of downturn we see in the next 12 to 18 months,” Temasek’s chief investment officer, Rohit Sipahimalani, said on Friday.
“I do expect as these valuations correct, we will again step up our pace of investment,” Sipahimalani told a session at the Milken Institute Asia Summit in Singapore.
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Temasek remains committed on its four major investment trends, including digitization, longer lifespans, sustainable living and the future of consumption, he said.
“I think those trends are still valid,” he said. “For the long term, we will continue investing alongside them with a few nuances.”
Stock markets globally have fallen sharply this year as big increases in interest rates by inflation-fighting central banks raise worries about a recession or economic slowdown.
Sipahimalani said the markets had not forecast any major decline in earnings and were instead factoring in growth in 2023.
“Even in a mild recession, you will probably, usually see a double-digit decline in earnings,” he said, adding that earnings could decline by as much as 15 percent.
Temasek, which owns some of the biggest Asian companies, such as DBS Group (DBSM.SI), China Construction Bank (601939.SS) and Standard Chartered (STAN.L), is mainly anchored in Asia.
The investment firm has a 63% exposure to the region as measured by underlying assets of its portfolio companies, most of which are in Singapore and China.
“The UK hasn’t been a significant investment destination for us,” Sipahimalani said. “Whether it’s sort of digitization or longer lifespans, and health tech, biotech or sustainable living, the main areas we’ve seen that happen are in markets like the U.S. and China.”
Temasek remains bullish on China in the longer term based on its investment themes, Sipahimalani said.
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Reporting by Yantoultra Ngui; Editing by Anshuman Daga and Gerry Doyle
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SINGAPORE, Sept 30 (Reuters) – Singapore has unveiled a package of measures for the property market, including tightening lending limits for housing loans in response to a rise in interest rates, as well as new steps to moderate demand.
The move would ensure “prudent borrowing” and “avoid future difficulties” in servicing home loans, said Singapore’s central bank, the Ministry of National Development and the Housing & Development Board in a joint statement late on Thursday.
The measures – including lowering the amount of government loans available to buy public housing by 5 percentage points – were announced late on Thursday and came into effect from Friday.
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OCBC economist Selena Ling said the steps were prudent and should “dampen any exuberance and slow the pace of price appreciation”.
The measures would have less impact on foreign investors as they are more attuned to the global interest rate situation or less dependent on loans, Ling said.
The new measures are mainly targeted at the resale public housing market, which had “overheated” this year given high prices across the island, said Christine Sun, senior vice president of research & analytics at OrangeTee & Tie.
Reuters had earlier reported record numbers of Singapore public housing apartments were sold at over S$1 million ($697,739).
The government implemented a broad package of cooling measures last December, but there was still a “clear upward momentum” in public housing prices which increased by more than 5% since then to the end of the second quarter this year, the authorities said in the statement.
Meanwhile, private home prices also rose 3.5% in the second quarter, five times the 0.7% increase in the previous quarter.
The higher prices of private and public housing apartments in Singapore, where real estate is viewed as a safe-harbour investment, have been exacerbated by COVID-19-related construction delays creating a shortage of new units.
Authorities said in Thursday’s statement that interest rates had risen significantly and are likely to go up further.
“We urge households to exercise prudence before taking up any new loans, and be sure of their debt-servicing ability before making long-term financial commitments.”
Many central banks across the world have increased interest rates recently to fight inflation. In Singapore, bank mortgage interest rates are determined by commercial banks. Three local banks have in recent weeks temporarily removed fixed-rate home loans.
Singapore’s monthly inflation rate has remained elevated in recent months, and economists widely expect the central bank to tighten policy at its scheduled review next month.
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Reporting by Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru, and Chen Lin and Xinghui Kok in Singapore; Editing by Leslie Adler and Christopher Cushing
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TORONTO, Sept 29 (Reuters) – Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) cut about 10 jobs in its U.S. investment banking division last week, a spokesperson for the bank said in an email on Thursday.
The cuts, which represent 1% of its U.S. investment banking division, were in line with “normal attrition” and the staff laid off are part of U.S. capital markets division, the spokesperson said.
RBC is Canada’s biggest bank and its capital markets business reported a 58% drop in net income in the third quarter to C$479 million ($350 million), primarily because of the impact of loan underwriting markdowns of C$385 million in the United States.
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RBC’s U.S. business includes retail banking, capital markets, wealth management and treasury services and wealth management.
Bank of Montreal (BMO.TO) has also laid off staff in its U.S. capital markets division, a spokesperson for the bank said earlier this month, without giving details.
Rapid interest rate hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve to tame runaway inflation have rattled global financial markets, curbing companies’ appetite for deals and making them wary of stock and debt offerings.
In July, Goldman Sachs Group Inc warned it may slow hiring and cut expenses as the economic outlook worsens. read more
(This story corrects job cut number to 10 from 30)
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Editing by Richard Chang and Gerry Doyle
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BEIJING/SHANGHAI, Sept 29 (Reuters) – A string of small and mid-sized Chinese banks are following their larger peers and cutting deposit interest rates in the first broad-based move since 2015 to ease pressure on margins after successive lending rate cuts.
The cutting of rates on deposits, a key source of funding for Chinese banks, underscores the limitations of lower benchmark borrowing rates in reviving loan demand and growth in the world’s second-largest economy, which is struggling for traction, analysts and bankers said.
Several Chinese city commercial banks and rural commercial lenders have cut their rates on a range of deposits this week, according to statements released on the banks’ websites.
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Bank of Nanjing Co Ltd (601009.SS) on Thursday lowered the interest rate for three-month deposits by 5 basis points (bps) to 1.35%, by 15 bps for one-year to 1.75% and by 20 bps for five-year deposits to 2.90%, according to a statement on its website.
The smaller lenders followed in the footsteps of some of China’s biggest state-owned banks, which implemented rate cuts earlier this month. read more
That came after the central bank in August cut the one-year loan prime rate (LPR), its benchmark lending rate, by 5 bps, and lowered the five-year LPR, which influences mortgages, by a bigger margin.
However, efforts to boost credit demand to shore up the slowing economy have not delivered the desired result yet. read more
“Now banks are facing the same problem, which is that credit demand is not strong,” said a person at a regional bank, declining to be identified as he was not authorised to speak to the media.
There’s a shortage of clients to lend to, which makes controlling costs a vital issue for banks, the person added.
The country’s banks extended 1.25 trillion yuan ($173.78 billion) in new yuan loans in August, below analysts’ expectations, while broad credit growth slowed, according to data from the People’s Bank of China.
China’s economy narrowly avoided contracting in the second quarter as widespread COVID-19 lockdowns and the slumping property sector weighed on demand. Analysts said business and consumer confidence remain fragile.
Wang Yifeng, analyst from Everbright Securities Co., expects that there’s room for further deposit rate cuts.
The cost of bank deposits is a bit high, as banks are more willing to absorb low-cost funding when they are struggling to lend out money, said Wang.
Wang Yudong, analyst at Minority Asset Management Co, likens the problems facing China’s banks to those of manufacturers.
“If prices of finished products drop, you need to lower the prices you pay for raw materials too to protect your profitability.”
Peiqian Liu, China economist at Natwest Markets, noted the commercial banks’ deposit rate cuts are part of the monetary policy transmission mechanism after the central bank cut key policy rates in August.
“This rate cut by commercial banks will help improve the profit margin slightly and is technically opening up more space for further (benchmark lending)
rate cuts.”
Four of the five of China’s largest banks, except for Bank of China, reported falling net interest margins (NIMs) in the second quarter.
At the end of June, the NIM of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd (601398.SS) was 2.03%, with Agricultural Bank of China (AgBank) (601288.SS) at 2.02% and China Construction Bank Corp (601939.SS) at 2.09%.
Smaller lenders reported thinner NIMs. Bank of Beijing Co Ltd, for instance, reported a margin of 1.77% at the end of June. The NIM of Bank of Qingdao Co Ltd was 1.76%, and Bank of Shanghai reported 1.66% NIM.
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Reporting by Ziyi Tang, Samuel Shen and Ryan Woo; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee and Kim Coghill
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Sept 28 (Reuters) – Hong Kong-based investment holding company CK Asset Holdings (1113.HK) has agreed to divest property assets for HK$20.77 billion ($2.65 billion).
CK Asset said on Wednesday its subsidiary would sell what it said was “the one and only issued share” in Aim Clever Holdings Limited, which indirectly owns assets such as 152 residential units in Hong Kong.
The disposal, which is estimated to result in around a HK$6.3 billion ($802.57 million) gain for CK Asset, followed the company’s March announcement of a 729.17 million pound ($777.00 million) sale of stake in Bluebutton Holdco 5 Broadgate (Jersey), which holds property assets in London.
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ORIC-Borrett Ltd, owned by a sub-fund of LC Vision Capital VCC, which is managed by Singapore-based asset management group Sino Suisse Capital, will buy the Aim Clever stake, a company filing on the stock exchange of Hong Kong said.
The deal is expected to be completed on 28 March, 2025, the earliest, the filing said.
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Reporting by Roushni Nair in Bengaluru; editing by Uttaresh.V and Jane Merriman
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SHANGHAI, Sept 28 (Reuters) – Investors dumped shares and bonds of Chinese property developers on Wednesday, after a media report that CIFI Holdings (Group) Co had defaulted added to worries over the crisis-stricken real estate sector.
Hong Kong-listed shares of CIFI Holdings (0884.HK)plunged 32.3% to a record low as of the market close on Wednesday, after credit intelligence provider Reorg reported that the Chinese developer had missed payment on certain non-standard debt.
In response to questions about the report, CIFI said it is actively seeking solutions, without giving further details. The company’s website said it was China’s eighth-largest listed developer last year.
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The share slump, which came after CIFI’s chairman recently predicted “unprecedented” liquidity stress ahead, triggered savage sell-offs in the sector.
Stocks and bonds of other property developers also slumped.
An index tracking mainland developers listed in Hong Kong (.HSMPI) tumbled more than 6.4% to record lows.
In Shanghai, bonds issued by property firms including CIFI Holdings, Sunac Real Estate and Gemdale Corp were among the biggest losers. The Shanghai Stock Exchange brieflysuspended trading in a CIFI bond, citingabnormal fluctuations.
Investors are worried that the sector’s cash crisis is finally reaching CIFI, which had been considered one of the country’s few relatively resilient private developers, said Shujin Chen, head of China FIG Research at Jefferies.
“The overall fragile investment sentiment in the wake of the sterling drop and global monetary policy uncertainties certainly did not help,” she added.
Sharp stock market losses this weekalso show investors don’t expect fresh property stimulus measures to be announced during or immediately after the 20th Communist Party Congress to be held from Oct. 16.
CIFI Holdings missed payment of debt under a project company known as Tianjin Xingzhou Real Estate Development Co, Reorg reported, citing sources.
In a letter to employees dated Sept. 27, CIFI Chairman Lin Zhong said the company’s priority now is to survive, as property sales in China remain sluggish amid COVID-19 lockdowns, an economic slowdown, and a mortgage payment boycott.
“Hardship and ordeal will persist for quite a long period of time,” Lin said in the letter, which was widely distributed via social media and confirmed by the company.
Lin said mortgage boycotts have prompted many local authorities to tighten cash withdrawals from escrow accounts, further squeezing liquidity for property developers.
“Although we have more than 30 billion yuan ($4.14 billion)of cash sitting on the books, the overwhelming majority of it could not meet reasonable demand by companies,” CIFI’s letter said.
“In the coming months, CIFI’s cash flows will meet unprecedented challenges.”
A source with direct contact with Lin told Reuters that Lin is under immense pressure, as there’s no fresh, big policy support in sight, so “it’s unclear when the industry can see a gleam of hope.”
Last week, CIFI was downgraded by Fitch Ratings, which cited the developer’s declining liquidity buffer and higher leverage.
Woes in China’s property market worsened in August, with official data showing home prices, sales and investment all falling, adding pressure on the sputtering economy. A number of leading developers have defaulted on bonds, and local governments are scrambling to devise financing fixes that will allow stalled construction on new homes to resume. read more
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Reporting by Shanghai newsroom and Xie Yu; Editing by Kim Coghill
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STEPHENVILLE, Newfoundland, Sept 24 (Reuters) – Powerful storm Fiona ripped into eastern Canada on Saturday with hurricane-force winds, forcing evacuations, knocking down trees and powerlines, and reducing many homes on the coast to “just a pile of rubble in the ocean.”
The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said the center of the storm, downgraded to Post-Tropical Cyclone Fiona, was now in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and losing some steam. The NHC canceled hurricane and tropical storm warnings for the region.
Port aux Basques, on the southwest tip of Newfoundland with a population of 4,067, bore the brunt of the storm’s rage.
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The mayor was forced to declare a state of emergency and evacuated parts of the town that suffered flooding and road washouts.
Several homes and an apartment building were dragged out to sea, Rene Roy, editor-in-chief of Wreckhouse Weekly in Port aux Basques, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
“This is hands down the most terrifying thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” Roy said, describing many homes as “just a pile of rubble in the ocean right now.”
“There is an apartment building that’s literally gone. There are entire streets that are gone,” he added. Police are investigating whether a woman had been swept to sea, CBC reported.
“We’ve gone through a very difficult morning,” Button said in a Facebook video, adding that the evacuations had been completed. “We’ll get through this. I promise you we will get through it.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met on Saturday morning with members of a government emergency response team, and later told reporters that the armed forces would be deployed to help with the clean up.
“We’re seeing reports of significant damage in the region, and recovery is going to be a big effort,” Trudeau said. “We will be there to support every step of the way.”
Trudeau had delayed his planned Saturday departure for Japan to attend the funeral of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, but said he now would no longer make the trip. Instead he said he would visit the storm-damaged region as soon as possible.
Federal assistance has already been approved for Nova Scotia, Trudeau said, and more requests are expected.
Fiona, which nearly a week ago battered Puerto Rico and other parts of the Caribbean, killed at least eight and knocked out power for virtually all of Puerto Rico’s 3.3 million people during a sweltering heat wave.
Fiona made landfall between Canso and Guysborough, Nova Scotia, where the Canadian Hurricane Centre said it recorded what may have been the lowest barometric pressure of any storm to hit land in the country’s history.
Ian Hubbard, meteorologist for the Canadian Hurricane Centre, told Reuters it appears Fiona lived up to expectations that it would be a “historical” storm.
“It did look like it had the potential to break the all-time record in Canada, and it looks like it did,” he said. “We’re still not out of this yet.”
Storms are not uncommon in the region and typically cross over rapidly, but Fiona is expected to impact a very large area.
While scientists have not yet determined whether climate change influenced Fiona’s strength or behavior, there is strong evidence that these devastating storms are getting worse.
HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS WITHOUT POWER
Some 69% of customers, or 360,720 were without power in Nova Scotia, and 95%, or more than 82,000, had lost power on Prince Edward Island, utility companies said. Police across the region reported multiple road closures. The region was also experiencing spotty mobile phone service.
Mobile and Wifi provider Rogers Communications Inc (RCIb.TO) said it was aware of outages caused by Fiona, and that crews would work to restore service “as quickly as possible.”
PEI produces more than a fifth of Canada’s potatoes and the island’s potato farms, which are in harvest season, were likely to be impacted by the storm, Hubbard said.
“This morning we all woke up to some very scary scenes, roads washed down, uprooted trees, mail boxes where they are not supposed to be,” Darlene Compton, deputy premier of PEI, told reporters, saying it had been a “nerve wracking” night.
In Halifax, 11 boats sank at the Shearwater Yacht Club and four were grounded, said Elaine Keene, who has a boat at the club that escaped damage.
Quebec Premier Francois Legault said no injuries or fatalities had been reported so far, and officials from both PEI and Nova Scotia said the same.
The storm weakened somewhat as it traveled north. By 5 pm in Halifax (2100 GMT), it was over the Gulf of St. Lawrence about 80 miles (130 km) northwest of Port aux Basques, carrying maximum sustained winds of 70 miles per hour (110 kph), the NHC said.
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Reporting Eric Martyn in Halifax and John Morris in Stephenville; Additional reporting by Ivelisse Rivera in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Ismail Shakil and Steve Scherer in Ottawa, and Denny Thomas in Toronto; Writing by Steve Scherer; Editing by Bill Berkrot, Diane Craft and Daniel Wallis
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The logo of Swiss bank Credit Suisse is seen at an office building in Zurich, Switzerland September 2, 2022. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo
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Sept 22 (Reuters) – Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN.S) has drawn up plans to split its investment bank in three, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, as the Swiss lender attempts to emerge from three years of relentless scandals.
Under proposals to the board, the bank is looking to sell profitable units such as its securitised products business to prevent a damaging capital raise, the report said, citing people familiar with the plans. https://on.ft.com/3BZHTUd
Credit Suisse declined to comment on the story when contacted by Reuters.
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The proposals could see the investment bank split into three parts: the group’s advisory business, which might be spun off at some later point; a “bad bank” to hold high-risk assets that will be wound down; and the rest of the business.
“We have said we will update on progress on our comprehensive strategy review when we announce our third-quarter earnings,” the newspaper report quoted Credit Suisse as saying. “It would be premature to comment on any potential outcomes before then.”
Chair Axel Lehmann had appointed Ulrich Körner as chief executive officer in the summer with a brief to carry out a radical shake-up of the bank, which has been hit by a corporate spying scandal, investment fund closures, a record trading loss and a litany of lawsuits in recent years, the report said.
Reuters reported earlier this month that Credit Suisse, Switzerland’s second-biggest bank, was also looking to cut around 5,000 jobs, about one position in 10, as part of a cost-reduction drive. read more
In May, Reuters said the bank was in the early stages of weighing options to bolster its capital after a string of losses had eroded its financial buffers. read more
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Reporting by Juby Babu in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips
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A woman points at the model of a residential compound by China Vanke as a sales agent introduces the property to the visitors at its showroom during the National Day “Golden Week” holiday, in Dongguan, Guangdong province, China October 2, 2018. REUTERS/Stringer
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HONG KONG, Sept 22 (Reuters Breakingviews) – Big names generate deal interest, but that comes with risks, too. China Vanke (000002.SZ), the biggest private developer by market value in the People’s Republic, is braving both rocky stock markets and the implosion of the mainland real estate sector to spin off its services unit at a valuation of almost $8 billion. That’s well below an earlier price tag, but it is still asking a premium to many peers.
At the top of the price range, residential and commercial property manager Onewo will raise about $790 million in what will be Hong Kong’s biggest initial public offering. A funding round last year valued the group at about $14 billion, per financial publication IFR. Two years ago, similar floats were commanding valuations of up to 27 times expected earnings. Those were better times: a Hong Kong index for the sector has dropped 72% since then.
Onewo will be valued at 17 times 2023 earnings according to IFR, roughly in line with the average of its peers. Look more closely though, and there’s a big split between state-backed firms trading on up to 30 times, and private rivals like Country Garden’s unit on 8 times.
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The pitch for property managers has been sticky revenue — someone has to keep emptying the bins — with titillating talk of fast-growing technology offerings. Onewo follows this pattern with its high-tech unit generating less than 10% of sales. Perhaps that’s why it dropped “Space-Tech” from its official name since its first filing.
More pertinent to its profit however, are the swings in profitability depending on Onewo’s customers. Last year it made a gross margin of 16% overseeing residential properties for its parent, but 4% working for others. For commercial properties, the margins were 20% and 12% respectively. It attributes the gap to $28 billion Vanke’s brand and quality, and the set-up costs for new third-party work. Unless Vanke goes on a building tear again, it’s hard to see Onewo maintaining anything like its recent 28% net profit growth.
Parent Vanke will take some comfort however from other recent listings in Hong Kong. Duty-free operator China Tourism Group (601888.SS), raised $2.1 billion last month, and its shares have risen 13% since, outpacing the wider market. Even so, Onewo doesn’t seem to be making much concession to the tough conditions it faces. In soft markets, that’s a risky ask.
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(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.)
CONTEXT NEWS
China Vanke is spinning off its property management unit Onewo in a Hong Kong initial public offering that could raise up to $790 million and value the business at almost $8 billion.
At the top end of its price range, at HK$52.7 per share, the deal would value Onewo at 24 times 2022 expected net profits, and 17 times its forecast 2023 numbers, according to financial publication IFR.
The float comes as the mainland property sector is dealing with a cash crunch and a loss of confidence that has led several developers to default with more expected to do so.
Vanke is the latest in a long line of its peers to raise funds from its services business, which looks after residential and commercial properties.
Onewo is expected to start trading on Sept. 29.
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Editing by Robyn Mak and Thomas Shum
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Opinions expressed are those of the author. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.