(Tiper Stock Exchange) – Valsabbina Bank he wants to continue to grow and it will not stop at the acquisition of Integrae SIM to better monitor the territories in which it operates and expand its commercial offer, with an eye to the capital market. However, the goal is to better serve client companies, mostly Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), which are increasingly open to alternative finance instruments and the opening up of capital to foster growth.
“We have made an important investment in Integrae SIM and we are convinced that with our entry the business can accelerate, also because we want to offer a further advanced service to our customers”, he explains to Finance Hermes Bianchetti, Deputy General Manager Vicar of Banca Valsabbina. “We want to focus – as well as on theEquity Capital Markets – also on the Debt Capital Marketsproposing instruments such as bonds and minibonds that can be particularly attractive to companies that have an interest in growing and making themselves known”, he added.
Banca Valsabbina yesterday announced the agreement for acquire the share majority stake of 52% held in the Milanese SIM by Arkios Italy, thus reaching 78% of the share capital. During 2020, the Brescia-based institute completed the acquisition of 26% of Integrae SIM, as part of a transaction that also saw the participation of Arkios Italy, an independent financial advisor specializing in M&A, as majority shareholder of Integrae SIM.
Integrae SIM is an intermediary specialized in the structuring of Equity Capital Market transactions on the Euronext Growth Milan (EGM) market, the Borsa Italiana market dedicated to SMEs with high growth potential. In this segment it is positioned – by number of transactions followed – among the main Global Coordinators, Euronext Growth Advisors (EGA) and Specialists. SIM has completed two new quotes since the beginning of the year, after 11 in 2022. If we consider the last three years, i.e. since 2020, there are instead 33 companies that have entered the Stock Exchange thanks to the team of professionals led by Luigi Giannotta, while the total since the birth of the EGM has reached 83.
Bianchetti is sure that Banca Valsabbina’s reference territories – the main capitals of Northern Italy with a strong presence in Lombardy – are a very interesting basin for feeding the IPO pipeline at Piazza Affari: “Listing is a sensitivity that is constantly growing more over time. Until a few years ago, when proposing the opening of capital to a family business, we were faced with a non-availability. Today this tool is increasingly known and the opportunities are growing. If originally it was not on the agenda to talk about IPOs with SMEs, we now see that this sensitivity is growing and the quotation tool is considered, also thanks to tax incentives“.
Banca Valsabbina, the main popular bank of Brescia, was founded in 1898 and for some years has started a process of renewing its development and offer strategies of services, with complementary solutions to the traditional model and a focus on SMEs. This path includes the services that the bank, also with the support of Integrae SIM, is providing to SMEs wishing to access the capital market, but also the numerous collaborations with companies operating in the Fintechfor structured and integrated finance operations.
This path will continue in the coming years. “We want create commercial and strategic collaborations and, where there is the opportunity, also entry into the capital, with those that can be complementary to our way of being traditional – says Bianchetti – It is about everything that can allow us a more complete or different service to customers compared to the traditional supply chain, on which however we continue to focus as evidenced by the fact that we continue to open branches. Traditionality remains a cornerstone, but it can easily be combined with operations such as the one with Integrae SIM or with fintech opportunities, with innovative, fast products that allow us to reach territories not covered by physical or remote networks”.
Banca Valsabbina closed the 2022 with the best performance in its history: net income reached 41.4 million euro, loans to customers were close to 3.9 billion euro and assets under management exceeded 11 billion euro. Today the institute operates through a territorial network that counts 70 branchesof which 43 in the province of Brescia, 8 in the province of Verona and 3 in Milan, and employs more than 800 people.
These numbers could lead to new extraordinary operations, to which the manager does not close the door, also because he says that the bank is “always attentive to the opportunities that the market presents”. “Surely targets are being evaluatedeven if it is not mandatory to do something – he specifies – If there were any opportunities that would allow us to increase our commercial strength in the area or our ability to offer services, we would certainly evaluate it”.
However, now the focus is on perfecting relations with Integrae SIM, for which Banca Valsabbina beat the competition from other companies, also because “we were facilitated by being in the shareholding structure, we had direct relationships and we didn’t get distracted by rumors of interest by third parties”.
Some changes in the Board are inevitable, given the exit of Arkios Italy, but in terms of board and management “there is no need to twist things“, underlines Bianchetti, adding that “the Integrae SIM machine works well, produces profitability and we have great confidence in the management”.