Unicredit closes the first quarter with the best result of the decade. Decisive two extraordinary items: the sale of real estate assets (+258 million) and the release of provisions for the settlement of US sanctions (+320 million).
The Bank thus closed the January-March period with a Net income group book value of 1,4 billion, up 24,7% year on year. L'adjusted net profit it reached 1,1 billion (+1,5%).
Revenues down to 5,0 billion (-3,0%), with commissions down by 5,3%, to 1,7 billion. Slight decrease also for the net operating margin, -0,5%, to 1,9 billion.
Il Red adjusted came in at 9,4%, up 0,5 percentage point year over year. There collection from customers group assets reached 429,3 billion at the end of March (+4,3%).
Operating costs to 2,6 billion (-4,2%), mainly thanks to lower personnel costs (-3,5%). On the property side, Cet1 Ratio to 12,25% in the first quarter.
"Having reached the last stretch of Transform 2019, I am very satisfied with Unicredit's performance at the beginning of the year - commented the CEO of Unicredit, Jean Pierre Mustier – For the second time in a row, it was the best first quarter of the last decade, reflecting the success of our current strategic plan and the fact that we are on the right track to achieve the Transform 2019 goals, all of which are confirmed, by the end of this year”.
As for the recent sale to institutional investors of 17% of Fineco, which is worth over one billion, "represented the first step and will be followed by other actions - added the manager - such as the acceleration of the sale of NPE in 2019 to support the runoff of the Non Core division by 2021, the realignment of our portfolio of domestic sovereign securities compared to those of our European competitors and an evolution of the Group structure which will allow us to increase flexibility and optimize the costs of our funding”.
In the afternoon Mustier then answered questions from journalists, focused above all on the three topical dossiers: Commerzbank, after the negotiations with Deutsche Bank fell through, on which the CEO took refuge behind a "no comment"; Carige, with the French manager who has not ruled out being able to participate in the rescue through the Interbank Deposit Protection Fund, "in a fair and proportional manner", recalling however that Unicredit's strategy is always that of purely organic growth; and above all Finecobank, whose sale of 17% yielded 1 billion euros in the bank's coffers. “This money – said both Mustier and the president Fabrizio Saccomanni – is used to strengthen the group, to develop the business in the countries where we are present and above all to support the real economy, above all the Italian one”.
Whether the sale is the prelude to a new phase of acquisitions, perhaps to be launched in the next industrial plan which will be launched on December 4th in London, is not yet known. But in the meantime Mustier has claimed the absolute convenience of the operation, “for Fineco, for which I have immense respect, for Italy and for Unicredit. Fineco is an excellent company, it will be able to grow further: we weren't obliged to sell, but the sale will guarantee us 17 years of dividends“. And a new capital strength which for now, says the bank, is needed more than anything else to make more loans to households and businesses. Mustier also intervened on the reduction of NPLs, which is proceeding at a faster pace than that envisaged in the Transform 2019 plan, which set the target by the end of this year at 14,9 billion of stocks: "We will end the year approaching 10 billion".
In mid-afternoon, after the words of the top management of Unicredit, the share on the Stock Exchange ended up in negative territory, losing more than 1% to 11,29 euros.
Article updated at 15.55
