Banco BPM CEO says profits to double as tycoon builds stake

MILAN (Reuters) -Banco BPM expects to double last year's net profit by 2025, its CEO was quoted as saying on Friday, as another newspaper reported that a top Italian businessman had built a 1% stake in Italy's third-largest bank.

"Over the next three years... we can double the 2022 net result (of 700 million euros ($767 million)). It's not an ambition but a fact," CEO Giuseppe Castagna told Il Sole 24 Ore newspaper a day after shareholders handed him a new three-year mandate.

Banco BPM is set to update its current business plan, which runs through 2024, to improve targets given higher interest rates.

"We're a year ahead of the plan's goals, which envisaged a 1 billion euro profit in 2024," Castagna said.

With roots in Italy's wealthiest region, Banco BPM has long been seen as an attractive takeover target in the banking sector, where more consolidation is expected.

Credit Agricole emerged as Banco BPM's single biggest investor a year ago shortly after UniCredit held fire on a buyout offer it was ready to launch.

The French bank, which has since raised its stake to 9.9%, backed Castagna's reappointment.

Meanwhile, Italian construction and media magnate Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone has built a 1.1% stake in Banco BPM, daily MF reported on Friday. Caltagirone declined to comment.

This week another Banco BPM investor, Fondazione CRT, which is also a shareholder in UniCredit, spoke in favour of a merger between the two.

Asked about those comments, Castagna said that if UniCredit offered in cash double the price of Banco BPM's shares "it would be a no-brainer".

"What I'm interested in is that the bank is worth a lot," he said.

Castagna has long tried, without success, to have Banco BPM play an active role in consolidation to avoid it being swallowed by a bigger peer.

($1 = 0.9125 euros)

(Reporting by Valentina Za, Stefano Bernabei and Federico Maccioni; Editing by Jan Harvey)