Monte dei Paschi Reports 24% Profit Rise, Surpassing Forecasts
MILAN (Reuters) -State-backed Monte dei Paschi di Siena on Friday posted a larger-than-forecast 24% rise in first-quarter profit as it pursues a hostile takeover of rival Mediobanca in the consolidation wave sweeping Italian finance.
Mediobanca, which has announced its own buyout offer for wealth manager Banca Generali in an effort to thwart Monte dei Paschi's (MPS) bid, also reported better than expected results on Friday.
MPS said net profit came in at 413 million euros ($464 million), well above a 341 million euro forecast in an analyst consensus gathered by the bank, as revenues held up and costs and loan loss provisions declined.
Revenues were flat year-on-year at 1 billion euros, topping expectations, with higher net fees offseting an 8% decline in income from the gap between lending and deposit rates. Fees from wealth management and advisory in particular shot up 21% on a quarterly basis.
The core capital ratio strengthened further to 19.6% of assets, one of the highest in the sector.
($1 = 0.8908 euros)
(Reporting by Valentina Za, editing by Alvise Armellini)
