By Andrea Mandala
MILAN (Reuters) -Italy’s Banco BPM on Wednesday upped targeted profits and payouts for investors through 2027 as it reported strong 2024 results, in an effort to fend off an unsolicited bid from bigger rival UniCredit.
Italy’s third-largest bank said it was also improving the price of an offer to buy out other investors in fund manager Anima Holding, a move that has been complicated by UniCredit’s bid.
Banco BPM plans to return shareholders more than 7 billion euros ($7.25 billion) in the 2024-2027 period, versus a 4 billion euro target set out in its previous 2023-2026 business plan.
The payout target is contingent on receiving supervisory approval to benefit from favourable capital rules known as ‘Danish Compromise’ in the Anima takeover.
Banco BPM, which reported a 1.7 billion euro net profit for 2024 excluding one-off items, said it would increase its income to 2.15 billion euros in 2027, provided it can take over Anima. That is above analysts’ expectations.
BPM called a shareholder vote on Feb. 28 to approve the increasing the price of the Anima buyout offer to 7 euros per share, in line with Anima’s current market price, from the 6.2 euros BPM offered in November.
Anima shares closed on Tuesday at 6.98 euros each.
The shareholder vote on the higher bid price is necessary because of a so-called ‘passivity rule’ triggered by UniCredit’s takeover offer, which BPM has rejected.
Also BPM shares trade well above the price of UniCredit’s bid.($1 = 0.9654 euros)
(Reporting by Andrea Mandalà, editing by Valentina Za)
