UniCredit plans to give investors $18 billion by 2024

ROME: Italian bank UniCredit announced a three-year business plan on Thursday that includes distributing some 16 billion euros ($18 billion) to shareholders from 2022 to 2024, Reuters reported.

The plan under CEO Andrea Orcel, who took over in April, also calls for raising net profit to 4.5 billion euros by 2024, from a targeted 3.3 billion euros this year.

“With this strategy we will deliver materially increased and growing shareholder returns while growing our business and maintaining capital strength,” Orcel said in a statement.

The bank’s shares grew by 9.5 per cent, to 12.65 euros, after the plan was announced.

It includes half a million euros in cost-cutting as the bank boosts revenue by 1.1 billion euros, to more than 17 billion euros, through fees and recovering market share.

The bank also plans to invest nearly 3 billion euros in a digital strategy, including a new platform, more digital services and real-time payments along with strengthening cyber-security.

UniCredit has over 14 million private clients and one million corporate clients in Italy, Germany, eastern Europe and central Europe. It is the second-largest bank by assets in Italy and the third-largest in Germany.

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