UniCredit SpA Chief Executive Officer Jean-Pierre Mustier’s turnaround plans hit a last-minute hurdle after the bank cut key targets and took a charge related to its Turkish bank, Bloomberg News reported. The lender surprised investors with an 850 million-euro ($972 million) charge to revalue Istanbul-based Yapi Kredi Bankasi AS and said it’s increasing funds to cover a potential settlement related to U.S. sanctions over Iran. The Milan-based bank also lowered targets for revenue and a key measure of financial strength this year and next, while keeping its 2019 profit target intact.
The state appointed commissioners running Alitalia will complete their examination of the proposals received for the sale of the company next week, a source close to the matter told Reuters on Thursday. The commissioners for the Italian carrier said last week they had received two binding offers and one non-binding expression of interest, but gave no details of the bids, Reuters reported.
Italian business executives are sounding the alarm. The composite purchasing managers’ index that tracks both services and manufacturing sectors in the Italian economy fell to 49.3 in October, the lowest reading since November 2013 and below the 50 mark that separates growth from contraction, the Financial Times reported. Data published last week had already pointed to the first contraction in the manufacturing sector since 2016. But on Tuesday, fresh data showed the services sector had followed suit, dragging the composite indicator with it.
Eurozone finance ministers have urged Italy to bow to Brussels’ calls to redraft a budget plan that breaks European spending rules, brushing aside attempts by Rome to defend the fiscal expansion as key to reviving the country’s economy, the Financial Times reported. Ministers called on Italy’s populist government on Monday to engage in talks with Brussels on a revised draft budget for 2019, backing the European Commission’s view that the plans violate previous commitments by Rome to shrink the deficit next year.
Italian manufacturers have reported the first contraction in the sector since 2016, according to an IHS markit survey, in the latest sign of a broader slowdown in the Italian economy, the Financial Times reported. The manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for Italy fell to 49.2 in October, the lowest reading in 46 months. The closely-monitored survey had been teetering on the brink in September, when it held at the 50 line that separates expansion from contraction.
Italy’s political tensions with the European Union and the accompanying financial jitters are beginning to take a toll on the Italian economy, the latest data suggest. Italy’s unemployment rate ticked up to 10.1% in September from 9.8% the previous month, the country’s statistics agency said Wednesday, reversing a downward trend throughout this year, The Wall Street Journal reported. And on Tuesday, the statistics agency said gross domestic product was unchanged in the third quarter from the second, the worst showing in almost four years, while business confidence fell in October.
Italy’s political tensions with the European Union and the accompanying financial jitters are beginning to take a toll on the Italian economy, the latest data suggest. Italy’s unemployment rate ticked up to 10.1% in September from 9.8% the previous month, the country’s statistics agency said Wednesday, reversing a downward trend throughout this year, The Wall Street Journal reported. And on Tuesday, the statistics agency said gross domestic product was unchanged in the third quarter from the second, the worst showing in almost four years, while business confidence fell in October.
Italy’s economy came to a standstill in the third quarter, with gross domestic product failing to tick up from the previous period, amid political tumult and volatility in the country’s financial markets, the Financial Times reported. GDP was flat in the July to September period, the worst performance since the fourth quarter of 2014, according to official data from the Italian National Institute of Statistics. It was expected to expand 0.1 per cent, according to a poll conducted by Reuters, from a rise of 0.2 per cent in the previous quarter.
Major companies on Tuesday ruled out involvement in a new rescue of Alitalia, complicating a plan led by Rome in which state-controlled railway Ferrovie dello Stato (FS) will bid for the airline and look to bring in partners, Reuters reported. Alitalia was put under special administration last year, leaving the government once again seeking a buyer to save the carrier. It will be the airline’s third rescue in a decade. FS said its board had decided to put in an offer to buy Alitalia, but gave no further details.
The board of Italy’s state-owned railway operator will meet on Monday afternoon to discuss an offer for the whole of national carrier Alitalia, a source close to the matter said. Any offer by railway group Ferrovie dello Stato (FS) will be subject to series of conditions, including finding an industrial partner, the source said. Once a major player in the European airline industry, Alitalia has suffered in the face of competition from high-speed trains and low-cost carriers in recent years, eroding its market share and denting its profits, Reuters reported.