MILAN (Reuters) -State-owned Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) on Friday reported a 388 million loss for the third quarter after booking charges to lay off staff through a costly voluntary scheme.
To fund the scheme and beef up its capital reserves, MPS this month raised 2.5 billion euros ($2.6 billion) in a new share issue – five years after an 8 billion euro bailout that handed the state its 64% stake.
MPS said the capital raising had lifted its core capital ratio to 14.7% at the end of September, up from 10.8% three months earlier.
MPS booked 925 million euros in charges in the period to finance 4,000 staff cuts.
Revenues in July-September weakened from the previous quarter but were up 4% from a year earlier as higher interest rates drove an increase in net interest income that more than offset lower net fees.
Excluding the layoff charges the bank’s net profit in the nine months stood at 565 million euros thanks to a 415 million euro tax boost. ($1 = 0.9786 euros)
(Reporting by Valentina Za, editing by Alvise Armellini & Shri Navaratnam)
