Intesa posts 16% rise in Q2 profit

MILAN: Italy’s Intesa Sanpaolo, which has just sealed a deal to buy smaller rival UBI, yesterday beat expectations with a 16% yearly rise in second-quarter profit despite €1.4bil

in provisions against loan losses. Net profit for the three months through

€1.4bil

June came in at (Us$1.7bil) against

€1.1bil an average forecast in a Reuters survey of six analysts.

€1.1bil Earnings were helped by a capital gain Intesa booked in the quarter from the sale of its retailers’ payments business to Nexi, which it used to increase provisions against loan losses in an economy ravaged by the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

Intesa said its net interest income, a measure of how much money a bank makes from its traditional lending business, declined only fractionally in the quarter versus the previous year. Fees however dropped 11% in a quarter impacted by a prolonged lockdown.

€4.1bil, Revenues totalled in line with analyst forecasts.

Intesa last week won a tortuous takeover battle for rival UBI, snapping up Italy’s healthiest second-tier peer to create the eurozone’s seventh-largest bank and drive profits through cost cuts and a focus on wealth management and insurance. — Reuters