Italy's BPER updates outlook as it prepares for further M&A growth

By Andrea Mandala Thu, August 6, 2026 at 7:50 AM UTC

0

By Andrea Mandala

MILAN, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Italy's BPER Banca on Thursday its outlook setting a 2028 profit target of around €2.7 billion following last year's takeover of smaller peer Popolare di Sondrio, while it stands ready to grow further as the sector consolidates.

BPER, Italy's fifth-largest bank, is set to be a key beneficiary of Intesa Sanpaolo's €35-billion bid for Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS).

If its bid succeeds, Intesa will sell 635 MPS branches, as well as most of the Siena-based lender's central operations and the centuries-old Monte dei Paschi brand to BPER's largest shareholder Unipol for them to be merged into BPER.

Unipol, which sells its insurance products through bank branches, has supported BPER's growth through acquisitions in recent years.

The MPS deal would turn BPER into Italy's second-largest banking group by customer loans, direct funding and number of branches, strengthening its position in the Lombardy, Tuscany and Veneto regions.

Advertisement

Before buying Popolare di Sondrio in 2025, BPER had acquired Carige in 2022 and some 600 branches in 2020 when Intesa Sanpaolo took over smaller rival UBI.

"We have demonstrated our ability to manage disruption and transform it into an opportunity for sustainable growth, and have built an organisation that is now ready for future challenges," CEO Gianni Franco Papa said in a statement.

BPER introduced new medium-term targets, including a cumulative shareholder payout of around €7.5 billion for 2025-2028, or at least 85% of profits, through planned cash dividends and share buybacks.

Betting on corporate banking, wealth management and 'bancassurance' activities, BPER said it would grow revenues to around €8 billion euros by 2028, from roughly €7.4 billion in 2025, with net fees increasing by around €400 million over the period to account for 38% of revenues.

Separately, BPER reported on Thursday a first-half ordinary net profit of €1.33 billion, up 14.7% year-on-year on a restated basis.

(Reporting by Andrea Mandalà, editing by Alvise Armellini and Valentina Za)

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Money”