The net profit of the largest bank in France in terms of asset volume – BNP Paribas Asset (PA: BNPP) SA in the fourth quarter of 2016 increased by 2.2 times - to 1.44 billion euro from 665 million euro in the same period of 2015, according to a press release of the credit service.
The indicator increased in particular due to higher income from debt securities.
However, the write-off of Polish units and restructuring costs worsened the profit by 127 million euro, which is why it has not held up to the consensus forecast of analysts polled by FactSet – 1.57 billion euro.
Quarterly revenue of BNP Paribas rose 2% to 10.66 billion euro, while the experts expected 10.48 billion euro.
At the end of 2016, the whole revenues of BNP Paribas increased by 1.1% to EUR 43.4 billion, net profit rose 15.1%, to EUR 7.7 billion.
BNP Paribas expects net profit growth of more than 6.5% per year over the next three years by limiting expenditures and increasing revenues in the area of international financial services and investment banking. The company is planning IT costs and automation of up to € 3 billion in the next three years.
In 2017-2020, the Bank will increase the dividends by an average of 9% per year. Return on equity is expected to rise from 9.4% in 2016 to 10% in 2020.
At the end of 2016, BNP Paribas will pay shareholders a dividend of 2.7 euro per share compared with 2.31 euro for 2015.
The capital adequacy ratio according to the standards of "Basel III" at full load on December 31 amounted to 11.5% against 10.9% a year earlier.
Over the past 12 months, BNP Paribas share price increased by 50%, outperforming the growth of the European banking sector as a whole.