MILAN, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Italy’s sixth-largest lender BPER Banca said on Thursday it would be more ambitious in cutting bad loans after reporting a net profit of 176.4 million euros for 2017.
“We are currently updating the NPE (non-performing exposure) plan with stock reduction targets that are even more ambitious than those announced in November”, Chief Executive Alessandro Vandelli said in a statement.
The update on NPE would be included in the new business plan to be approved by summer’s end, he said.
Under a reduction plan approved in November BPER expected to lower bad debts weight to 13.5 percent of total loans in 2018-2020.
The bank said it would pay a dividend of 11 euro cents a share over 2017 results, up from 6 euro cents in the previous year. (Reporting by Elisa Anzolin; editing by Francesca Landini)