Intesa Sanpaolo, the leading Italian bank by assets, closed the first nine months of 2024 with results beyond expectations and announced an upward revision of its guidance for 2025.
The numbers of the nine months
Intesa Sanpaolo’s nine months close with a net interest equal to 11,917 million euros, up 11.5% compared to the 10,691 million in the first nine months of 2023. commissions net income amounted to 6,970 million euros, an increase of 7.9% compared to the 6,461 million in the first nine months of 2023. operating income they stood at 20.4 billion euros, an increase of 8.5%.
The result of operational management increased by 14.2% to 12.5 billion euros, while net profit stood at 7.2 billion euros, up 17.1% compared to the 6.2 billion in the first nine months of 2023.
Solid capital position. At the end of September 2024, the incidence of impaired loans on total loans was equal to 1.1% net of value adjustments and 2.2% gross. The Common Equity Tier 1 ratio was 13.9%, without considering approximately 120 cents of a point of benefit deriving from the absorption of deferred tax assets (DTA), of which approximately 20 in the period between the fourth quarter of 2024 and 2025.
The increase in 2025 guidance
The bank confirmed that the implementation of the 2022-2025 Business Plan is progressing “at full speed”with a perspective of net profit for 2024 at over 8.5 billion euros (with net interest at over 15.5 billion euros) and for 2025 to around 9 billion euros. Further distribution for 2024 to be quantified when the annual results are approved, further future distributions to be evaluated year by year.
“The net profit target for the financial year 2025 has been increased to around 9 billion euros, thanks to the high potential of our investment bank develop profitability organically“, explained the CEO of the Carlo Messina Group, adding “the context relating to interest rates is evolving, however we will be able to face it successfully thanks to the significant diversification of our business model and to the savings entrusted to us by families and businesses which as of 30 September 2024 amounted to approximately 1,400 billion, growing by over 135 billion from 30 September 2023″.
Returns for shareholders
The bank reports a “significant” cash return for shareholders, equal to 5 billion euros of dividends accrued in the nine months (which are added to the buyback of 1.7 billion euros concluded in October 2024), of which 3 billion will be distributed as an interim dividend in November.
The Board of Directors approved the distribution of a dividend of 17 cents euros per share, gross of legal withholdings, as an interim dividend based on the 2024 results (for a total of 3,027 million euros). The interim dividend will be paid on 20 November 2024 (with ex-dividend date 18 November and record date 19 November). The interim dividend per share, compared to the reference price of the share recorded yesterday, corresponds to a dividend yield of 4.3%.
