(Finance) – Ifis Bank “And focused on good management of the core businessmaintaining investments”, and showing a “continued emphasis on short-term lending with interesting risk/return ratios”, i.e. maintaining a “short” balance sheet, to respond effectively to the macroeconomic slowdown that is emerging in Italy, with more cautious companies. It has starved him Frederik GeertmanCEO of Ifis Bankin the call that followed the publication of the results as of September 30, 2023.
The CEO explained that “commercial activity in the third quarter of 2023 reflects the typical seasonality of the market and of the third quarter”, while in factoring “after the strong resilience of the previous months, the market shows some signs of slowdown due to the decline in invoices and credit demand”, but Banca Ifis’ growth remains “above the market while maintaining discipline on underwriting and pricing”. leasing“since the end of August we have seen the first signs of delays in capex decisions by SMEs”.
Geertman explained that “the asset quality is confirmed and the overlays fully express the bank’s prudence”, with third quarter LLP at 15 million euros and the asset quality which is protected by stable overlays at 65 million euros. The “cost of risk is now more normal for a bank like ours”, he underlined.
The number one of Banca Ifis said that “no signs of macro credit risk are materializing in our book“, with “companies that are rather liquid (payment days in factoring lower than the 2022 level) and stable probability of default, and therefore – even if there is a slowdown in economic growth and we see other signs of difficulty such as those in certain industries – this risk is not materializing in our book.”
On the funding front, he explained that “the available liquidity is expected to exceed 1 billion euros post TLTRO repayment, while available liquidity is at 1.7 billion euros as of 30 September 2023, above above our target level and perhaps slightly inefficient, but these levels for early issuance of a senior bond for prudential reasons.”
According to the new dividend policy, “there will be total potential dividends equal to 110 million euros (over 2 euros per share), of which 63 million euros (1.2 euros per share) as an interim dividend to be paid on 22 November 2023 “. The dividend yield 2023 is at 12.3%.