Italy’s BPER Banca will consider a potential merger deal if the opportunity arises, but M&A is not a priority, new CEO Piero Montani said on Friday, after the lender reported solid financial results in the first quarter.
The Italian banking sector is consolidating and BPER, the country’s fifth-largest lender, has long been seen as the best partner for Banco BPM in a deal that would create Italy’s second-largest bank by market share.
The two banks have held talks, people close to the matter have previously said, but at the moment BPER is focused on consolidating new branches.
“If some favourable (merger) opportunities arise, we will evaluate them, but as for now it is certainly not the priority,” Montani said in his first comment since he was appointed BPER chief executive last month.
Montani added that “the first objective” was to integrate the 600 branches it acquired from Intesa Sanpaolo, which was forced to sell following its takeover of smaller rival UBI Banca last year.
The deal meant a significant growth in scale for BPER.
In the first quarter BPER Banca posted a 400 million euro ($487 million) net profit, well above the 6 million euros in the same period last year.
The net profit was boosted by better-than-expected revenue and a positive accounting effect worth more than 1 billion euros stemming from the branches acquisition, which more than offset integration charges and higher provisions.
The bank’s revenue increased 27% to 758 million euros, beating 696 million euros forecast in a Reuters analyst poll thanks to solid fees and a jump in trading due to booming financial markets.
Source: Reuters.com