UniCredit hikes payout goal by 40% after record profit

MILAN (Reuters) - UniCredit pledged to return 5.25 billion euros ($5.69 billion) to investors based on its 2022 results, further hiking one of the most ambitious payout target among European banks, after posting its best profit in over a decade.

UniCredit said net profit came in at 2.46 billion euros in the three months through December, more than twice an average forecast of 1.10 billion euros ($1.2 bln) from analysts polled by the bank.

(Reporting by Valentina Za, editing by Gavin Jones)