The Banque Centrale Populaire has set the goal of returning up to 75% of profits to shareholders in 2028. In the new strategic plan for the next four years, Millennium subordinates the achievement of this goal to the achievement of another: achieving a cumulative net result of 4 to 4.5 billion euros in the period 2025-2028. – with an annual average of more than one billion – and three-quarters of this amount is returned in the form of profits. The “payment” target is therefore much higher than the current target of 30%, and will reach 50% next year. The intention, the implementation of which will launch a share buyback program worth a quarter of the profits obtained in 2024, is subject to regulatory approval.
“It's time to give back,” the CEO said in the 2025-2028 strategic plan presentation. Miguel Maya recognizes that “the best protection for the bank is to satisfy shareholders, both large and small,” but highlights that the intention will be guided by the logic of “keeping the bank very strong.”
Millennium also indicates in the document that at the end of the period it will reach a turnover of 190 billion euros, of which 120 billion in Portugal, where it wants to reach 3 million customers, a total of 8 million in total. Geography.
However, the profitability target is lower than the current target: the plan sets a lower target of 13.5%, below the current level of 14.9%.
The margin breaks the trend and goes down, but the profit goes up by 10%
The Banque Centrale Populaire achieved a profit of 714.1 million euros during the first nine months of the combined year, an improvement of 9.7% compared to the same period in 2023.
In a residual interruption to the trend of recent quarters, financial margin declined: reaching $2.1 billion (0.3% or $7 million less than in September 2023). Commissions compensated for this decline and generated another 23 million, for a total of 601.8 million euros.
Operating costs increased by 10.8% to 946.6 million.
In the capital segregation, the Common Equity (CET 1) ratio (“Tier 1 Common Equity”) increased from 14.9% to 16.5%.
Profitability declined: ROE (return on equity) reached 14.9% last September, lower than the 16% it had been the previous year.
Portugal is also growing
In Portugal, the result until September rose by 8.8% to 606 million euros.
The financial margin on national territory decreased significantly: it fell by 8.6% to 1 billion euros. On the contrary, commissions generated an inflow of €434.9 million, 3.6% higher than in September 2023.
Customer resources increased by 6% to €69.6 billion. Term deposits grew significantly from 20.9 billion to 26 billion euros. Current deposits suffered the opposite movement: they fell from €29.5 billion to €27.5 billion.
The CEO explained that the credit portfolio decreased by 2.1% due to lower demand. It amounts to 38.6 billion euros.
Operating costs in local operations increased by 5% to €483.2 million.
The proportion of bad debts decreased significantly (down 12.3%), reaching €1.05 billion.
The best protection for a bank is to satisfy shareholders, both large and small. Miguel Maya
Executive Chairman of the Communist Party
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