UniCredit beats expectations with rise in profits

MILAN

Italian bank UniCredit, in the midst of a massive overhaul, said Thursday that its net profit rose modestly in the second quarter, beating expectations.

While analysts had expected profits to decline to 676 million euros in the April-June period, instead they rose by 3.3 per cent from the second quarter last year to 945 million euros ($1.1 billion). UniCredit has undertaken a major restructuring of its business after it was among the worst performers in stress test results published by Europe’s EBA banking regulator in July 2016.

The restructuring programme dubbed Transform 2019 will have UniCredit axe the equivalent of 14,000 full-time jobs from an overall workforce of 101,000 by the end of 2019.