Board meeting of 29 January: preliminary results for 2014

Rome, 29 January 2015

Cassa Depositi e Prestiti Spa (CDP) announces that the Board of Directors, meeting today under the chairmanship of Franco Bassanini, has examined the preliminary results for 2014.

In an environment marked by the slow recovery of the economy, CDP continues to play its role as a counter-cyclical operator sustaining the growth of the economy. The performance achieved during the year was in line with that envisaged in the 2013-2015 Business Plan.

Resources mobilised and managed

In 2014 the CDP Group mobilised and managed resources totalling some €29 billion, up 5% on the previous year.

The parent company CDP mobilised and managed funds amounting to €19 billion, up 18% on 2013.

A significant contribution to this performance came from the new instruments for financing enterprises and from providing advances on payments of general government liabilities on behalf of the Ministry for the Economy and Finance. More specifically, the preliminary figures on main developments in the three primary areas of CDP operations can be summarised as follows:

• Public entities and local development: CDP was once again a key partner for public entities. For the first time in many years of results, 2014 has demonstrated significant growth of loans to local entities. During the year resources mobilised and managed on behalf of local authorities totalled more than €9 billion, up about 60% on 2013. Traditional lending activities were supplemented by operations to develop property assets and providing advances on late payments of general government debts on behalf of the Ministry for the Economy and Finance.
• Enterprises: in 2014 CDP continued to make a major contribution to spurring economic recovery through its support for Italian enterprises, mobilising about €7.6 billion in resources. New instruments launched in 2014 included the Capital Goods Fund, whose resources will double in 2015 to €5 billion. Another new tool already rolled out in the economy is the Minibond Fund, which was created in 2014 together with the Venture Capital Fund through the Fondo Italiano di Investimento: investments in the first 10 private debt funds were recently approved, in the total amount of €250 million, equal to the initial funding provided by CDP. Furthermore, there have been 1.1 billion euros of orders financed through the “Export bank” system, for export businesses. 
• Infrastructure: financing was broadly in line with the previous year at about €2.3 billion, representing the resources that CDP mobilised for infrastructure to modernise Italy. CDP also helped make a number of major infrastructure projects bankable, both through the grant of lines of credit and the operations of the equity funds in which the parent company has invested, such as F2i, Marguerite and Inframed. Another development involved the substantial investments – through Metroweb – to build digital infrastructure in the main urban areas of the country.

The CDP Group also played a role in leveraging enterprises and major strategic assets through the acquisition by FSI of stakes in important Italian industrial enterprises and the creation of an Italian tourism hub (Rocco Forte). To date, investments by FSI in companies of major national interest have involved 10 firms, with a total of €2.7 billion in investments and commitments.

The CDP Group also acted as a catalyst for foreign investment in Italy, with €5.5 billion in 2014 alone (and €7 billion since 2013). 
 

Preliminary financial and performance figures

The stock of loans to customers and banks is expected to be in line with the figures posted in 2013, at about €103 billion, running counter to the general macroeconomic trend of contraction in lending to enterprises and general government.

On the liability side, the stock of postal funding is projected to total about €252 billion, with positive net funding pertaining to CDP of about €5 billion.

Equity is forecast to increase by 8%, to €19.5 billion.

The decrease in net interest income is expected to amount to €1.2 billion, consistent with forecasts, while net incomeshould exceed expectations at about €2.1 billion.