MILAN (Reuters) -Italy’s Monte dei Paschi di Siena on Friday posted a surprise rise in third-quarter profit and said it would present a new strategy early next year following the acquisition of rival Mediobanca.
Monte dei Paschi (MPS), which was rescued by the state in 2017 and successfully re-privatised leaving Rome with a stake of just 4.9%, completed the Mediobanca takeover in September.
It will incorporate Mediobanca’s results into its earnings from October 1, it said.
Net profit for the three months through September was 474 million euros ($553 million), up from 407 million a year earlier and well above a company-gathered analyst consensus of 366 million euros.
Revenues held broadly steady year-on-year at around 1 billion euros, thanks to higher trading income and net fees, despite lower interest rates weighing on lending income. Analysts had expected revenues to decline to 973 million euros.
The acquisition of prestigious merchant bank Mediobanca by a bailed-out rival shocked Italy’s financial world and marks the biggest and boldest deal yet in an M&A wave sweeping the sector.
($1 = 0.8575 euros)
(Reporting by Valentina Za. Editing by Mark Potter)
