UniCredit reports profit rise

Italy's biggest bank, UniCredit, on Tuesday reported a net profit of 335 million euros ($425 million) in the third quarter - an improvement on the previous quarter and the same period last year. The bank had registered a net loss of 474 million euros in the third quarter of 2011.
Over the first nine months of the year, UniCredit said it had clocked a net profit of 1.4 billion euros compared to a profit of 847 million euros in the same period last year, the company said in a statement. "Our revenues remain resilient in spite of a continued difficult economic environment, particularly in Italy," Federico Ghizzoni, the bank's chief executive, was quoted as saying. Ghizzoni said this was "thanks to our geographical diversification and our strength in Central and Eastern Europe".