How are Bper’s accounts going?
Accounts, comments and scenarios on Bper after the half-year report
A positive balance for the first half of the year which also benefited from the integration of Ubi Banca branches. Bper looks to the coming months with confidence and, while working on the industrial plan that will arrive between the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022, it is witnessing the moves of the banking risk in which it could be involved, in particular in an M&A process.
THE ACCOUNTS OF BPER AND THE MORATORIES
In the first six months of 2021, Bper posted a net profit of 502 million euros. Net of the numerous extraordinary components – explains a note from the group – profit before taxes is equal to approximately 260 million euros, thanks to net operating income of 1.59 billion, driven by the growth in revenues for the development of net commissions incurred and from the placement of asset management and bancassurance products. The first half of 2020 – in which the integration of 620 branches acquired by Intesa Sanpaolo had not yet been counted – had recorded a profit of 102.5 million euros and revenues of 1.22 billion euros. “The results for the half year – explained by Bper – highlight the increase in volumes, the increase in profitability, the improvement in credit quality and the strengthening of competitive positioning”.
Looking at the second part of the year, Bper expects "a good marginality of traditional revenues supported by the contribution of the acquired branch, by expected growth in loans and by a commission component estimated to increase further thanks in particular to the development of the asset management sector and bancassurance, as well as the resumption of transactional activity ". The trend in operating costs is expected to decrease, “both due to the gradual disappearance of the non-recurring costs associated with the integration process that characterized the first half of the year, and as a result of the efficiency measures currently being implemented. Credit quality will continue to be the subject of particular attention, with an NPE ratio and a cost of credit that should remain under control while taking into account a scenario that is still characterized by high uncertainty. The capital position is expected to remain at high levels ".
On the moratorium front, loans amounted to 3.2 billion euros at 30 June, down by 60% compared to 8.1 billion at 31 March 2021, thanks to "renewal requests significantly lower than the amount due , confirming the improvement in the economic context ".
THE VANDELLI-MONTANI APPROACH
Yesterday also the communication that Alessandro Vandelli will leave Bper and that Montani will also take on the role of general manager in addition to that of managing director from 5 August. Vandelli will have an early retirement incentive of 1.6 million, another 600 thousand euros as a 12-month non-competition and non-solicitation agreement and the retention of the rights connected to the 2019-2021 long-term incentive plan, in proportionate pro rata temporis. "The Board expresses sincere thanks to Alessandro Vandelli for the commitment, dedication and contribution, in terms of value creation, made during the years at the helm of the Bank and the Group – reads the note -, expressing its best wishes for his future professional activities ".
THE COMMENT OF MONTANI
The one who commented on the accounts in the group's note is a satisfied Montani. "Thanks also to the contribution of the acquired branch, the results closed very positively – he said – expressing a growing ordinary profitability, mainly driven by the increase in commission income, supported by the recovery of the transactional banking activity with customers and by placements of products in the managed savings and bancassurance sector. The good operating performance is also combined with a further improvement in credit quality thanks to the drop in the gross NPE ratio to 5.7% and net to 2.8% ”.
The top management of Bper are confident that “the prudential approach adopted in the provisioning policy will make it possible in perspective to benefit from a lower cost of credit”. In the meantime, the acquisition of Ubi Banca branches "has led to a significant strengthening of the Group's competitive positioning and now allows us to focus on the development of the commercial activity, to meet the growing needs of customers, and on the efficiency actions of operating processes and rationalization of the cost structure ". These are objectives that “will form the basis of our 2022-2024 industrial plan, which will outline the strategy for a new phase of growth for the Group, while helping to accompany the economic recovery in the country”.
THE ASSUMPTIONS OF M&A FOR BPER
During the conference call with analysts, Montani also spoke about the future and possible mergers. “We have not thought about or are thinking about other operations – he said according to what Ansa reports -, of course the market is moving forward, we could be involved and if so we will evaluate the convenience for our shareholders. If this is the case, the bank will be able to proceed with another integration. For the moment, the priority for us is the integration of this business unit ".
The manager recalled that the group "is working around the industrial plan" which will be ready "for the end of the year and the beginning" of the new one and recalled the acquisition of Ubi Banca: "It was a very important thing , represents 30% of staff and approximately 40% of branches. The impact – he said again – is also important for the specific weight that derives from it: today the bank works for 60% in Northern Italy, especially in Lombardy and Emilia ”.
And if at the moment Bper is not working on mergers, Montani says he is "convinced that there will always be an opportunity for integration that can be interesting also because we insist on territories of a certain interest and it will be difficult for us to be able to stay out of some process of this kind. , however, at the moment we have to focus on the things we have under our feet and not on those too far from our eyes ”.
Regarding the potential partners, the CEO and neo-CEO was clear: "Popular di Sondrio, Banco Bpm and Monte dei Paschi have remained of banks of our size, on which there have been some Unicredit releases so I cannot say anything" . Instead, "Carige would tend to exclude it at the moment because there are problems that need to be solved". In short, “basically there are three” but “as far as we are concerned at the moment, our priority remains integration. We then realize that we may be involved in an M&A process. We will not shy away if the operation is configured as an advantage for the bank and for the shareholders, we are able to deal with it ".
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/conti-trimestrale-bper/ on Thu, 05 Aug 2021 06:45:44 +0000.