MILAN (Reuters) -Italy’s Banco BPM (LON:) beat forecasts on Tuesday with a 40% annual rise in first-quarter net profit, as rising revenues and falling loan-loss provisions more than offset an increase in costs.
Italy’s third-largest bank reported a net profit of 370.2 million euros ($398.8 million) for the January-March period. This compares with a LSEG analyst consensus of 352 million euros.
Banco BPM, whose leading shareholder and main commercial partner is French bank Credit Agricole (EPA:), confirmed its profit and shareholder remuneration outlook for this year.
However it added that the robust quarterly results created scope for a potential improvement in its 90 euro cent per share 2024 earnings guidance.
The guidance could be updated with the half-year results, the bank said.
Income from lending grew by 16.3% year-on-year as deposit costs in Italy continue to lag lending rates, although it was virtually flat quarter-on-quarter.
Revenues totalled 1.4 billion euros, helped also by net fees rebounding 11.7% from the last quarter.
($1 = 0.9282 euros)
(Andrea Mandalà, editing Gianluca Semeraro and Tomasz Janowski)
