Feb 20 (Reuters) - Italian insurer Unipol reported a 36.8% rise in its full-year net profit on Friday, mainly driven by a strong performance in its core insurance business and a contribution from
Unipol Surpasses Profit Forecasts Amid BPER-Sondrio Merger Progress
By Laura Contemori and Andrea Mandala
Feb 20 (Reuters) - Italian financial group Unipol reported on Friday full‑year profit and dividend that beat analysts' expectations driven partly by its core insurance business, sending its shares up as much as 6%.
Unipol's Financial Performance and Strategic Moves
The result was also helped by contributions from soon-to-be-merged BPER and Banca Popolare di Sondrio, Unipol said. Unipol is the main shareholder in BPER and Pop Sondrio and distributes its insurance policies through them.
It backed the 5.4-billion-euro ($6.35 billion) cash-and-share offer made by BPER for its smaller rival which was completed in July. In November, the banks approved a merger plan, and their integration is expected to be completed by mid-April.
Unipol Chair Carlo Cimbri said that BPER's priority was the integration with Popolare di Sondrio rather than considering any new mergers and acquisitions. Unipol is the biggest shareholder in BPER with a roughly 20% stake.
Monitoring Italian Banking Sector Consolidation
Cimbri told reporters on a conference call that Unipol was closely monitoring any potential new waves of consolidation in the Italian banking sector.
"We are equipping ourselves to stay safe in a world of wolves," he said, adding that the insurer preferred to pursue organic growth as it saw no acquisition opportunities in its own sector.
ON TRACK TO EXCEED PLANNED TARGETS
Dividend Increase and Future Financial Targets
Unipol proposed a dividend of 1.12 euros per share, up 31.8% from a year earlier, after net profit jumped to 1.53 billion euros in 2025.
It said the results put it on track to exceed targets set under its 2025-2027 plan, which includes a cumulative consolidated profit of 3.8 billion euros and a cumulative dividend payout of 2.2 billion euros by the end of the period.
Cimbri said there was no plan to upgrade the targets but added that the dividend level set for 2025 should be considered a minimum floor that "could be lifted if conditions allow".
($1 = 0.8509 euros)
(Reporting by Andrea Mandalà in Milan and Laura Contemori in Gdansk; Editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
