Banco Bpm, profits jump to 265 million (+49%) – Corriere.it

The results obtained and the solidity of Banco Bpm “leave room for a further increase in shareholder remuneration, on which we will be able to give more details with the presentation of the new 2023-2025 plan”. Also for Piazza Meda, as well as for Unicredit and Intesa Sanpaolo, the rate hike has toned up interest margins and thus the accounts for the first three months of 2023, so much so that, in the light of these prospects, the bank led by Giuseppe Castagna expects to update the business plan in the second half of the year. Coming to the quarterly, profit stood at 265 million euros, up by 49.2% compared to the same period last year and the estimate is to raise them to 1.1 billion for 2023 (compared to 900 in the previous guidance; they were even 740 in the original business plan), with earnings per share of 0.75 euro as opposed to the previous 0.6 euro; for 2024, however, the bar is set at 1.4 billion (it was 1.1 billion) with an Eps from 0.75 to 0.9 euros. Between now and 2025, the bank expects to distribute dividends of 1.25 billion euros to shareholders, double the two-year period 2021-2022, 22% of its capitalization: 570 million in 2023 and 670 million in 2024.

The difference between interest income and expenses jumped to the highest level ever recorded, reaching 743 million, with a growth of 2.6% compared to the fourth quarter of 2022 and of 45.2% year on year; for 2023 it is expected at 3 billion. Net loans amounted to 102.3 billion euro (+1%). «Today we feel that it is time to go further and with the new industrial plan to have a different remuneration for shareholders», explained Castagna; the distribution of value could take place with a new increase in the payout or with a buyback. “Give us time to fix these numbers,” he told analysts.

The derisking strategy has brought the incidence of non-performing loans to 4%, 2% of total gross loans and a new transfer of npl for 700 million is planned within the period of the plan. The Cet1 Ratio thus strengthened to 14.1%. Banco Bpm expects to have a comfortable level of capital at the end of 2024, with a Cet1 “above 14%, which is not our target” and which can be used for shareholder remuneration while the bank has no intention of committing in mergers and acquisitions. “We don’t think” that the M&A “can give us the same remuneration,” the CEO said on a conference call. Thanks to the level of capital, “we are very confident of increasing the remuneration for the partners”. Finally, an agreement will arrive by the end of June for the enhancement of the activities related to POS and credit cards, the sale of which was announced in April. According to Castagna, the “upfront” collection linked to the future partnership will be able to “create further space for the remuneration of shareholders”.