(Combines previous stories, adds comments; changes media
identifier, previous BANCO BPM/M&A)
MILAN, April 21 (Reuters) - Banco BPM expects
to double last year's net profit by 2025, its CEO was quoted as
saying on Friday, as another newspaper reported that a top
Italian businessman had built a 1% stake in Italy's
third-largest bank.
"Over the next three years... we can double the 2022 net
result (of 700 million euros ($767 million)). It's not an
ambition but a fact," CEO Giuseppe Castagna told Il Sole 24 Ore
newspaper a day after shareholders handed him a new three-year
mandate.
Banco BPM is set to update its current business plan, which
runs through 2024, to improve targets given higher interest
rates.
"We're a year ahead of the plan's goals, which envisaged a 1
billion euro profit in 2024," Castagna said.
With roots in Italy's wealthiest region, Banco BPM has long
been seen as an attractive takeover target in the banking
sector, where more consolidation is expected.
Credit Agricole emerged as Banco BPM's single
biggest investor a year ago shortly after UniCredit held fire on a buyout offer it was ready to launch.
The French bank, which has since raised its stake to 9.9%,
backed Castagna's reappointment.
Meanwhile, Italian construction and media magnate Francesco
Gaetano Caltagirone has built a 1.1% stake in Banco BPM, daily
MF reported on Friday. Caltagirone declined to comment.
This week another Banco BPM investor, Fondazione CRT, which
is also a shareholder in UniCredit, spoke in favour of a merger
between the two.
Asked about those comments, Castagna said that if UniCredit
offered in cash double the price of Banco BPM's shares "it would
be a no-brainer".
"What I'm interested in is that the bank is worth a lot," he
said.
Castagna has long tried, without success, to have Banco BPM
play an active role in consolidation to avoid it being swallowed
by a bigger peer.
($1 = 0.9125 euros)
(Reporting by Valentina Za, Stefano Bernabei and Federico
Maccioni; Editing by Jan Harvey)
