Intesa Sanpaolo, how costs, revenues and dividends are going
Forecasts and final balance on the main balance sheet items of Intesa Sanpaolo. The article by Emanuela Rossi
The numbers speak for themselves: Intesa Sanpaolo continues to grind profits, despite the difficult time for the war in Ukraine. Indeed, in the second half of 2022 exposure to Russia decreased by 2.5 billion (-68%) and non-performing loans by around 4.6 billion from the end of 2021 and by around 54 billion from the peak in September 2015.
The managing director, Carlo Messina , was very clear during the press conference to present the accounts: “I'm not interested in making a short-term outlook to make people dream. I want to think in the long term”, in the meantime “we are respecting all the commitments”, even those with the shareholders.
But let's see how things went compared to analysts' forecasts.
NET PROFIT AND REVENUES
Last year Ca de' Sass achieved a net book profit of 4.35 billion, +4% from 4.18 billion in 2021, after adjustments of 1.4 billion for Russia. Without provisions, net profit stood at 5.5 billion, well beyond the target set by the business plan. Figures that led the CEO to speak of "the best balance sheet in the history of Intesa Sanpaolo".
Bloomberg 's forecasts were for a net profit of 5.63 billion euros and those of the American investment bank Goldman Sachs of 4.2 billion euros, while for Banca Akros analysts the year-end was for a net profit of 4.1 billion (-2%), substantially in line with 2021 and with the guidance of at least 4 billion "confirming the solidity of the bank's business model".
In the fourth quarter, revenues grew by 13%, exceeding the expectations of Goldman Sachs which aimed for +10% compared to a year earlier, driven by the interest margin which benefited from higher rates.
COSTS
On the cost front, Credit Suisse expected the chapter to rise due to one-off payments to employees and seasonality. Indeed, in the fourth quarter of 2022 costs rose by 18.6% to 3.13 million – including 36 million, in personnel expenses, of a one-off contribution to mitigate the impact of inflation) compared to 2.64 in the third quarter. In particular, personnel expenses increased by 17.7%, administrative expenses by 24.5% and depreciation and amortization by 9.9%. On an annual basis, the increase was instead 3.2% compared to 3 billion in the corresponding quarter of 2021, due to +5.2% for personnel expenses, +2.1% for depreciation and amortization and -0 .5% for administrative expenses.
For the whole of 2022, on the other hand, costs showed a decrease of 0.4%, to 10.93 million, compared to 10.98 million the previous year. In particular, administrative expenses decreased by 2.7% and depreciation and amortization increased by 3%. As can be seen from the group's press release, Intesa Sanpaolo closed over 550 branches between the fourth quarter of 2021 and 2022 in view of the launch of the new Digital Bank.
DIVIDENDS AND CAPITALIZATION
Another important chapter is that of dividends. Ca de' Sass has announced that it will distribute 1.6 billion of the final dividend for 2022, in addition to the 1.4 billion of the 2022 interim dividend paid last November. The bank's board also approved the execution of the buyback for the remaining amount of 1.7 billion euros authorized by the ECB. The approved dividend per share is 16.06 cents, in line with analysts' expectations.
In detail, Bloomberg forecast a dividend per share of 0.16 euro and Banca Akros of 0.15 euro on the basis of the 70% payout ratio declared by Intesa Sanpaolo with a "solid Cet1 ratio of 12.7% phased-in and 12 .5% fully loaded”. For Bloomberg , on the other hand, the Fully-loaded Cet1 ratio stood at 13%, still less than the 13.5% achieved by the group and greater than 12% over the horizon of the 2022-2025 Business Plan according to Basel 3 / Basel 4 rules .
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/intesa-sanpaolo-costi-ricavi-dividendi/ on Tue, 07 Feb 2023 07:04:26 +0000.