Orcel, appointed four years ago, has in recent months launched an offer for Italian rival Banco BPM and has also raised UniCredit’s stake in Commerzbank, one of Germany’s biggest lenders.
The 2024 net profit was higher than expected by analysts, who had predicted €9.4 billion, and larger than UniCredit’s target of more than €9 billion.
Against a backdrop of falling interest rates, however, fourth quarter (Q4) net profit was down by almost 30% to €1.96 billion.
This was better than the 1.63 billion forecast by analysts, but UniCredit shares fell more than 3% on the Milan Stock Exchange, trading at around €45.50 in morning deals.
“We ended 2024 with a strong Q4, crowning 16 quarters of quality profitable growth and our best full year stated net profit ever,” Orcel said in a statement.
“The macroeconomic and geopolitical backdrop remains complicated and unpredictable.
“We are however well positioned to absorb a normalisation of interest rates and cost of risk and cost inflation,” he added.
The bank has promised to return €9 billion to shareholders on the back of its 2024 results, up from the €8.6 billion it had planned.
“For 2025, UniCredit expects net profit to be ‘broadly in line’ with last year’s despite macroeconomic ‘headwinds’,” it said in a statement.
The Italian lender surprised markets in September by revealing it had built up a 9% stake in Commerzbank, fuelling takeover speculation.
It has since boosted its holding to around 28%, although the plan has faced strong resistance from Commerzbank and from the government in Berlin.
Orcel has previously acknowledged that with German snap elections on Feb 23, UniCredit could not move in the short term and perhaps may not be able to move at all.
UniCredit also launched a public exchange offer for Banco BPM, Italy’s third largest bank, in November, valuing its rival at €10.1 billion.
But Banco BPM judged the offer insufficient and in January filed an appeal with the Italian competition watchdog against the move.
Prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s government is also cool on the bid, which derailed its plans to create a third banking division between Banco BPM and Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS).
MPS, the world’s oldest bank, was bailed out by the Italian government in 2017 and has long been considered the weak link in the sector, although it has begun a clear recovery.