The Commerzbank AG headquarters, in the financial district of Frankfurt, Germany, on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024.
Emanuele Cremaschi | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Italy’s second-largest lender UniCredit on Tuesday posted a fourth-quarter profit beat, raising shareholder returns amid market focus on the bank’s M&A overtures.
Net profit attributable to the group came in at 1.969 billion euros ($2.03 billion) in the fourth quarter, compared with an analyst forecast of 1.803 billion euros, according to a LSEG-compiled consensus.
Revenues reached 6 billion euros over the period, versus analyst expectations of 5.898 billion euros.
UniCredit has been at the epicenter of Italy’s nascent push for consolidation since the second half of last year, following its surprise build — and later increase — of a stake in Germany’s Commerzbank, and its takeover offer for domestic peer Banco BPM at the end of 2024. The Italian lender has so far rejected UniCredit’s opening play, but CEO Andrea Orcel told Bloomberg his opening bid for Banco BPM was only a “fair starting point.”
The German administration has decried UniCredit’s “very aggressive, very opaque, untransparent” bid for Commerzbank, with Rome likewise resistant on the domestic front, amid broader government plans to form a third Italian banking titan alongside Intesa Saopaolo and UniCredit. Complicating the landscape of Italian dealmaking, UniCredit on Feb. 2 unveiled a 4.1% stake build in Italy’s top insurer Generali Group, but has stressed that “no strategic interest” motivates the venture.
Critically, Italy operates under so-called golden powers legislation which permits Rome to intercede or set conditions on foreign and domestic corporate takeovers in key sectors such as defense, energy, communications and banking.
Market participants are watching which of its twin-pronged suits UniCredit will commit to, or whether it will ambitiously keep both targets in sight.
This breaking news story is being updated.
