Intesa Sanpaolo: nine-month profit rises to 8.2 billion (+8.2 per cent), guidance revised upwards. Messina: ‘With Siena, profits to reach 16 billion in 2029’
Profit for 2026 is expected to be ‘well above’ 10 billion. Messina: ‘A strong business plan with MPS’. The exchange ratio rises to 1.664 Intesa shares for every MPS share
Intesa Sanpaolo has closed the first nine months of the year with a profit of 8.2 billion, up 8.1 per cent on the same period in 2025. In the third quarter alone, profit reached 2.65 billion, compared with the 2.5 billion expected by analysts. These figures have led the group, headed by Carlo Messina, to revise its full-year forecast upwards, indicating a net profit ‘well above’ 10 billion.
“This is the ‘best net result ever’ for both the first nine months of the year and the third quarter,” explains CEO Carlo Messina in a statement. The banker points out that the upward revision to the guidance comes ‘despite the fiscal impact of almost one billion euros from the 2026 Budget Law’, and that the group continues to ‘offer one of the highest and most sustainable dividend yields in the European banking sector’.
In light of these results, the board of directors of the bank, chaired by Gian Maria Gros-Pietro, has approved an interim dividend of 3.8 billion, equivalent to 22 cents per share, to be paid on 25 November. Consequently, to offset the effect of the dividend, the exchange ratio for the OPAS offer for MPS has also been adjusted, rising from 1.6 to 1.664 newly issued Intesa shares for each Monte share tendered to the offer.
Operating performance: cost-to-income ratio falls to 36.7%
More specifically, net operating income rose by 5 per cent to 21.46 billion over the nine-month period, driven by net interest income (+2.3 per cent), commission income (+5.2 per cent) and insurance operations (+5.8 per cent). Conversely, the bank continues to demonstrate its ability to optimise operating costs, which fell by 1.3 per cent over the nine-month period to 7.88 billion, enabling operating profit to rise by 9 per cent to 13.58 billion. All this is reflected in the cost-to-income ratio, which fell to 36.7 per cent from 39.1 per cent a year earlier, “among the best among the major European banks”, the bank explains in a statement.
Credit risk at an all-time low, exposure to Russia reduced to zero
The cost of risk remains at modest levels, standing at 19 basis points on an annualised basis, with net loan impairment charges falling to 634 million from 783 million in the first nine months of 2025. The ratio of non-performing loans to total loans stands at 0.9 per cent net and 1.9 per cent gross. This ‘zero NPL’ approach, as the bank reiterates, is underpinned by a prudential buffer of 900 million in overlay. Meanwhile, exposure to Russia is now ‘virtually zero’: the credit risk on the balance sheet, net of write-downs and guarantees, has fallen to 90 million euros.
