By Gianluca Semeraro
MILAN (Reuters) -Italy’s Mediobanca said on Thursday it would buy back its own shares for around 200 million euros ($223 million) in the new fiscal year, as its Chief Executive Alberto Nagel said he was available for another three-year term.
Mediobanca shareholders will be asked to renew the board in late October.
At the helm since 2008, Nagel has come under fire in the last two years from two major shareholders, the Del Vecchio family’s holding company Delfin and Italian tycoon Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone.
Both blamed him for not adequately growing the investment bank’s business and for hampering the expansion of insurer Generali, in which Mediobanca is the main shareholder.
“I expressed my willingness to continue in the current position having come up with a plan for a big push”, Nagel told a post-results press briefing.
At the end of May Nagel unveiled a new strategy for the bank through 2026.
After announcing his availability for a new three-year term, Mediobanca shares extended gains up to 3.4%.
Mediobanca posted a 13% yearly rise in net profit to 1.03 billion euros in the 12 months through June, its best net profit ever, after one-off hits totalling around 190 million euros.
The bank booked a 49.5 million euro impairment on Swiss asset manager RAM while also setting aside 26 million euros to fund voluntary staff exits to boost generational turnover.
Revenues rose 16% to 3.3 billion euros, topping the target set under a three-year plan through mid-2023, as higher rates lifted net interest income and wealth management propped up fees despite a tough backdrop in corporate and investment banking.
The share buyback programme will start “immediately after” required approvals from the European Central Bank and Mediobanca’s Annual General Meeting in late October, Nagel said.
In its three-year plan, Mediobanca pledged to buy back shares up to 1 billion euros.
($1 = 0.8976 euros)
(Reporting by Gianluca Semeraro; editing by Gavin Jones)
