Chaired by Rosalba Casiraghi, the Board of Directors of illimity Bank S.p.A. (“illimity” or the “Bank”) yesterday approved the illimity Group’s results at 31 December 2020.
Despite the difficult situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, illimity has fully met the results contained in its earnings guidance announced at the end of the first half year, reporting a net profit of 31.1 million euro for the year as a whole (a loss of 16.1 million euro in 2019) and already achieving an ROE(1) of approximately 5.5% in the Bank’s first full year of operations.
The fourth quarter provided a significant contribution to the annual results, posting a pre-tax profit of 8.3 million euro, despite investments were made in new strategic projects whose positive effects will only be felt in future years.
The main driver of growth for profits during the year was the positive dynamic of net customer loans and investments, which amounted to 2.2 billion euro at 31 December 2020, a rise of 35% over the figure of 1.6 billion euro at the end of 2019, with the total representing an increase of 20% over the balance at 30 September 2020.
All the Bank’s business lines contributed to this rise in volumes.
In the SME Division, net customer loans climbed by 55% over the figure at the end of December 2019 to reach 817 million euro at 31 December 2020 (representing an increase of 19% over the end of September 2020). The new business generation underwent an acceleration from the summer and also continued vigorously in the last part of the year, with all sectors making a positive contribution – Factoring, Crossover & Acquisition Finance and Turnaround – benefiting among other things from the strong demand for the loans with public guarantees introduced by government decrees issued as a consequence of the pandemic crisis.
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Volumes in the DCIS Division rose by 30% in 2020 to reach 1,308 million euro, with an acceleration in the generation of new business taking place in the last part of the year, further emphasising the seasonality typical of this sector which sees transactions in distressed credit concentrated in this period. Also in the fourth quarter 2020, the Bank continued its dynamic portfolio management strategy in place, which led to further gains from asset disposals and closed positions for 13.2 million euro.
illimity’s asset quality continued to be solid: loans to corporates in the SME Division did not suffer any notable deterioration. At the end of 2020 gross organic non-performing loans therefore remained constant at 37.4 million euro, almost entirely relating to the business portfolio of the former Banca Interprovinciale network, and the ratio with total gross customer loans fell to 3.2%, compared to the September 2020 figure of 3.8% and 4.2% at the end of 2019.
