Optimism is again in the ascendant in the EU. Hopes are running high that the bloc will dodge serious economic damage from rate tightening. The EU’s biggest lender, BNP Paribas, has already recovered the eighth of its market value that it lost in the gloom of 2022.
On Tuesday, boss Jean-Laurent Bonnafé upped BNP’s annual growth target for net income by 2 percentage points to more than 9 per cent by 2025. He also promised big payouts, totted up to €10bn by Jefferies. Both moves took the sting out of lacklustre fourth-quarter profits.
The bank plans to invest €7.6bn of the proceeds from its $16.3bn sale of Bank of the West in expanding existing businesses and on bolt-on takeovers. It aims to exploit retrenchment by rivals and broaden its reach in insurance. BNP expects this deployment of capital to generate an extra €3bn in revenues over the next two years.