Mps is not part of UniCredit’s plans. The number one of Piazza Gae Aulenti reiterates this in an interview with La Stampa in which he also explains why the Italian bank, in general, does not pursue at all costs a strategy focused on M&A, or on the operations of merger and acquisition.
“In Italy we have a bank with a pre-tax profit up 32%, a return on capital of 14% and costs at 45% of revenues: performance on the rise. In the most attractive and low-capital-absorbing products, such as unit-linked or non-life policies, we have high market shares, which is why I have always said that acquisitions are not needed at all costs “, underlines the CEO of UniCredit, reiterating what has been said several times. in the past, or that, even looking to the future, “aggregations should only be made where they are able to add value”.
Still, Orcel pointed out, “there is another aspect: when an acquisition is made, at times, there is a risk of diverting people’s energy from the execution of the business plan. As far as Unicredit is concerned, it is the first time in 15 years that we have reached a possible crisis with a different bank, centered and with robust lines of defense ”.
Returning to the case of Mps, which last October 17 launched a capital increase of 2.5 billion euros, Orcel preferred to respond with a No Comment. Thus to La Stampa:
“I do not comment on this. I believe that Siena with the capital increase has chosen its path, which I respect, and continues as we are doing now. Rather, my obsession is to bring out how much improvement there is in the bank, where we will be able to extract more value than any extraordinary transaction “.
Yesterday the CEO of UniCredit had replied as follows on the Mps case on Bloomberg television:
“The priority on which the entire organization (UniCredit) focuses is the execution of the Plan”. The implementation of the UniCredit Unlocked business plan, added CEO Orcel, “is creating billions of value, many more than any possible acquisition and it is on this that we continue to focus”.
UniCredit announced yesterday, Wednesday 26 October, the accounts relating to the third quarter and the first nine months of the year 2022.
Excluding Russia, net profit stood at € 1.3 billion, down 9.9% on a quarterly basis, but up 31.1% on an annual basis. Including Russia, net income was € 1.7 billion in the third quarter, better than expected by the consensus, which had estimated a net book profit of 1.004 billion including Russia for the led bank Andrea Orcel. Profit also higher than Bloomberg’s outlook, which had forecast a net profit of 1.05 billion. Overall, in the first nine months of 2022, UniCredit’s net profit rose to 4 billion, a value that exceeded the full year of 2021.
Total revenues excluding Russia amounted to € 4.5 bn in the third quarter, up 0.2 per cent Q / Q and 4.5 per cent y / y.
“Net of the one-off negative impact linked to TLTRO III, total revenues amounted to € 4.8 bn, up 7.2 per cent Q / Q and up 11.8 per cent y / y , driven by the growth in the interest margin, thanks to the context of interest rates and income from trading activities that reflect commercial activity “. The consensus had forecast total revenues of 4.51 billion euros.