MILAN (Reuters) -UniCredit on Wednesday posted a much higher than expected quarterly profit an raised its 2025 outlook, a day after ditching a takeover bid for rival Banco BPM which had led Italy’s second biggest bank to clash with the government.
UniCredit late on Tuesday said it was withdrawing the offer, blaming government meddling for altering the process and depriving Banco BPM shareholders, as well as Italy’s economy, of a good opportunity.
UniCredit said net profit in the three months through June totalled 2.9 billion euros net of one-off items and 3.3 billion euros when including those. That is well above a 2.5 billion euro ($2.9 billion) forecast in a company-gathered analyst consensus, and up from 2.7 billion euros a year ago.
UniCredit forecast a net profit in the full year of around 10.5 billion euros, improving on a previous guidance for a net profit above 9.3 billion euros.
($1 = 0.8522 euros)
(Reporting by Valentina Za, editing by Alvise Armellini)
