By Valentina Za
MILAN (Reuters) – UniCredit will only proceed with a proposed buyout of rival Banco BPM on the right terms, and can easily return to a “very positive” standalone path, its chief executive said on Thursday.
CEO Andrea Orcel, speaking at the annual shareholder meeting where investors are set to approve a share issue needed to finance the bid, said UniCredit had performed better than any other European bank since he took over in 2021, and was better placed than rivals going forward.
Orcel said the Banco BPM acquisition on the right terms could further enhance UniCredit’s prospects, but would only be pursued if the terms were favourable.
“The deal must make sense or we won’t do it,” he said, adding that the current terms met UniCredit’s criteria.
Orcel confirmed UniCredit’s guidance for a 2025 net profit matching last year’s record level, rising further to around 10 billion euros by 2027, with distribution of excess cash in 2025-2027 above the level of 2024.
Orcel has returned 26 billion euros to investors through share buybacks and dividends since 2021, pushing UniCredit’s shares higher ahead of any potential acquisition.
In addition to the Banco BPM bid, Orcel has built stakes in Germany’s Commerzbank and Italian insurer Generali.
Banco BPM investors’ hopes to achieve a higher premium to tender their shares than the 0.5% UniCredit has proposed suffered a blow on Wednesday, due to an opinion issued by the European Central Bank.
Banco BPM said the ECB had taken a negative view on the possibility it could tap favourable capital rules in its ongoing acquisition of fund manager Anima Holding.
The final decision on the matter rests with the European Banking Authority, but regulators are normally aligned and investors dumped Banco BPM shares on Wednesday, sharply reducing the premium at which they trade versus the price of UniCredit’s bid
Orcel, who has consistently raised doubts about Banco BPM’s chances of making use of the favourable capital treatment, said the latest events showed UniCredit had been right in not taking into account the Anima deal when bidding for BPM.
(Reporting by Valentina Za. Editing by Alvise Armellini and Jane Merriman)
