Pop. Bari, quorum reached at the meeting. Transformation into Spa or bankruptcy

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Saving or liquidation. In a few hours the fate of the Popolare di Bari will be known, the largest bank in the South at the center of a 1.6 billion public-private rescue operation, most of which put by Italian banks through the mandatory Fitd consortium and in a minor measure from Mediocredito Centrale which with an outlay of only 430 million will obtain 97% of the bank’s capital. The widespread collection of proxies, just under 40 thousand out of 70 thousand members, allowed on Saturday afternoon to reach the quorum for the first call of the extraordinary meeting, scheduled for today at 11.

No member is admitted to the bank for the rules imposed by Covid and the vote will be expressed by the common representative. The fate is in the hands of the shareholders of the bank who, in order to save it, can only approve the transformation into a spa, the cornerstone of the whole construction put up in six months by the extraordinary commissioners Antonio Blandini and Enrico Ajello called by the Bank of Italy in mid-December to putting a patch on the bleeding in the accounts caused by the management of the Jacobini family ousted from the management and grappling with the accusations of the Bari judiciary. Otherwise it will be bankrupt because the bank without the capital increase of more than 933 million will not comply with the minimum capital requirements provided for by the legislation and would be put into liquidation with catastrophic consequences for the territory and for the staff who would all lose their jobs .

Written answers for non-shareholder refreshment

Being retail shareholders of Popolare di Bari without being registered in the shareholders’ register precludes, for this category of small savers, the possibility of accessing the € 2.38 compensation per share and the free shares offered by the bank’s extraordinary commissioners (thanks to Fitd ) to the shareholders who today will participate in the bank’s meeting for the transformation into a spa. The bank explains this in the written answers to the written questions already formulated by the shareholders in recent days in view of today’s meeting. However, a reply emerges from the replies: “The bank will in any case evaluate very carefully – it reads – after the meeting, the position of the non-shareholder shareholders who were unable to exercise the right to vote due to administrative problems, for the purpose of a possible extension, following the examination of the specific case that may have been submitted, also to them the settlement agreement and the assignment of the warrant (not the assignment of free shares) “. The status of member of a popular club is obtained after obtaining approval from the bank’s board of directors. The current statute of the bank (still for a few hours) provides that in order to attend the meetings and exercise the right to vote, it must be registered in the shareholders’ register at least 90 days before the date set for the first call meeting. In their replies, the bank’s extraordinary commissioners add a ‘little gift’ to the non-shareholder shareholders: “in addition to benefiting from the favorable impacts deriving from the maintenance of the shares in their possession” – they write referring to this category of shareholders – they will also have access to special conditions for services and banking and insurance products, and also participate in the solidarity conciliation table that will be set up and financed by the Bank “.

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