By Andrea Mandala
MILAN (Reuters) -Banco BPM raised its 2025 guidance after a bigger-than-expected 38% rise in first quarter net profit driven by fee and trading income which more than offset the hit from lower interest rates, it said on Wednesday.
The bank, the target of a hostile 13.7 billion euro all-share offer by UniCredit, reported a net profit of 511 million euros ($581 million) for the January-March period, up from 370 million a year earlier.
That was above an analyst consensus forecast compiled by Reuters of 445 million euros. Banco BPM said it now expected a net profit of 1.95 billion euros in 2025, hiking a previous target of 1.7 billion euros.
Revenues rose slightly from a year ago to 1.5 billion euros, fractionally ahead of expectations.
Net fees rose 6.2% year-on-year with asset management activity picking up. A narrowing gap between lending and deposit rates drove the net interest margin down 5.5%.
Banco BPM said it had started integrating Anima Holding the fund manager it succeeded in acquiring last month to boost net fees, despite being denied favourable regulatory capital treatment.
Anima’s acquisition was part of Banco BPM’s defence against UniCredit’s takeover bid, which started on April 18 and runs until June 23. UniCredit has a right to drop it until June 30.
The offer, which at present is at a discount to market values and therefore unlikely to succeed without a sweetener, has been further undermined by a harsh set of conditions Italy has imposed using powers designed to protect assets of strategic national importance.
UniCredit is hoping to sit down with the government to review conditions which it said make it impossible for them to pursue the deal.
UniCredit is offering 0.175 new shares for each BPM share tendered which, as of Wednesday, represented a 7% discount to BPM’s current market price. ($1 = 0.8798 euros)
(Reporing by Andrea Mandalà; Editing by Valentina ZaEditing by Gianluca Semeraro and Keith Weir)
