Unicredit ended 2013 with a record net loss of 14 billion euros, which compares with the profit of 865 million achieved in 2012. The result is very far from the estimates of the analysts, who had forecast a slight profit. The figure, explains the institute, was impacted by "write-downs on goodwill and additional provisions on credits".
Furthermore, the BoD will propose to the assembly on May 13 the distribution of one "script dividend”, or a dividend drawn from profit reserves, equal to 10 euro cents per share, through the attribution of newly issued Unicredit shares or, at the specific request of the shareholders, through cash payment.
Unicredit has also announced that it will listed by 2014 Fineco Bank, the group's online subsidiary. The Bank confirms its intention to continue the active management of the equity investment portfolio and to think about the sale of Uccmb, UniCredit Credit Management Bank, the subsidiary which is responsible for managing and collecting the main part of non-performing loans originating in Italy.
The institute then let it be known that the benefit of revaluation of the stake in the Bank of Italy for 2013 it was equal to 1,4 billion euros before taxes, but if it were valued at equity "the net loss of the group would be higher than 1,2 billion" in 2013. As for the 2014, the Bank expects to return to profit, realizing group profits of approximately two billion euro.
The Unicredit numbers weighed on the company's share on the Stock Exchange, which after a morning in positive territory had turned red, losing about two and a half percentage points around 14 pm. The news relating to the listing of Fineco and the possible However, the sale of Uccmb reversed the share's trend again, which in the immediately following minutes returned to gaining more than one percentage point.
STRATEGIC PLAN
Unicredit's Board of Directors today also launched the new 2013-2018 strategic plan, which envisages a net profit of 6,6 billion in 2018, with a group Roe of 13% and a Cet1 Ratio of 10%, "fully anticipating the effects of Basel3”.
The plan also provides for the "distribution of a dividend with an average payout of approximately 40%". Asset quality, reads the press release issued by the institution, "remains a priority, with a target coverage ratio of above 50% on non-performing loans and a cost of risk below 70 basis points in 2018" .
