MILAN (Reuters) -Italian lender BPER Banca reported a 29.5% year-on-year rise in first-half net profit on Wednesday, driven by strong fee income and it raised its standalone full-year revenue guidance.
Shares in Italy’s fourth-largest bank rose more than 2% with some analysts citing better-than-expected results.
BPER recently completed a 5.44 billion euro takeover bid for rival Banca Popolare di Sondrio.
The integration, expected by the first half of 2026, is set to create a banking group with 410 billion euros in financial assets and around 6 million clients.
The two banks are partners in insurance with Unipol, which is the main shareholder in both and backed the deal. With Italy’s banking sector consolidating, BPER said it had to bid for Popolare di Sondrio as a defensive move to preserve its market positioning.
BPER reported a net profit of 903.5 million euros ($1 billion) for the January-June period from 724.2 million euro a year earlier.
Core revenues remained stable at 2.69 billion, as a 4.8% increase in net fees, supported by growth in asset management and bancassurance, offset a 3.4% drop in net interest income amid falling rates.
“Results were better than expected due to good top line trends”, brokerage Intermonte said.
BPER said it will update its business plan by the first half of 2026 to incorporate Banca Popolare di Sondrio.
In the meantime, the bank has revised its standalone full-year guidance, now expecting total revenues of around 5.5 billion euros, from a previous forecast of 5.4 billion euros.
($1 = 0.8637 euros)
(Reporting by Andrea Mandalà; Editing by Valentina Za and Jane Merriman)
