MILAN (Reuters) – UniCredit on Wednesday raised its guidance for next year and said it would pay out half of its profit in cash to shareholders, after posting a higher than forecast net profit for the third quarter.
Italy’s second-biggest bank by assets has become the main private investor in German rival Commerzbank, which on Wednesday reported a smaller than expected drop in third quarter income.
UniCredit said stated net profit for the July-September period totalled 2.51 billion euros, against a 2.27 billion euro ($2.48 billion) average forecast in a company-provided consensus. ($1 = 0.9158 euros)
(Reporting by Valentina Za, editing by Alvise Armellini)