Mediobanca posts record profit ahead of vote on new board

By Gianluca Semeraro

MILAN (Reuters) - Mediobanca posted its best-ever quarterly profit on Thursday, ahead of a key shareholder vote to name the Italian bank's new board that is likely to hand Chief Executive Alberto Nagel a new three-year mandate.

Net profit rose 34% year-on-year to 351 million euros ($370 million) in the three months through September, beating a bank-provided analyst consensus of 315 million euros, thanks to contributions from wealth management and insurance.

Mediobanca's current financial year, which runs from July to June, is the first of three years covered by a new business plan unveiled by CEO Nagel in May.

"This quarter set the tone for what we want to do in the course of the plan, which is to have a bank more focused on wealth management," Nagel, who has been at the helm of the bank since 2008, told a post-results press briefing.

Revenues came in at 863 million euros, also above analyst expectations. Rising rates drove net interest income higher and offset a decline in fees as investment banking suffered in difficult markets, Mediobanca said in a statement.

On Saturday, Mediobanca shareholders will choose between a slate of board candidates filed by outgoing directors, and another list put forward by the bank's top investor Delfin, the holding company of the late Italian billionaire Leonardo Del Vecchio.

Del Vecchio, who died last year at the age of 87, had criticised Nagel for failing to grow the investment bank's business decisively and hampering expansion at insurer Generali, in which Mediobanca is the main shareholder.

Delfin can win either two or five seats on a 15-member board, depending on how much support its nominees attract.

Nagel said he was "committed and available" to lead the bank even if Delfin's slate won the most votes in Saturday's meeting.

"The industrial direction of the bank will remain the same, and we will be committed to doing even better," he said.

Mediobanca said it would set a non-distributable reserve of 226 million euros instead of paying a one-off windfall banking tax, following the course announced this week by the two biggest Italian banks Intesa Sanpaolo and UniCredit .

($1 = 0.9489 euros)

(editing by Valentina Za and Keith Weir)