The accounts are running, but Piazza Affari remains cold. The record results of the first half are not enough to ignite the stock of Poste Italiane, received cautiously by the market despite revenues, profitability, and profit hitting new all-time highs. On the table, after all, there are not only the numbers of the quarter but also a profound transformation of the group: from the Opas on Tim to the new financial hub, through the reorganization of the post office network, artificial intelligence, and the renewal of the agreement with Cdp on postal savings.
RECORD HALF-YEAR, GUIDANCE CONFIRMED
The accounts certify another milestone of growth. In the first half, revenues reached a record level of 6.841 billion euros, up 6% compared to a year earlier thanks to the contribution of all business areas. The adjusted operating result rose by 7% to 1.772 billion, while net profit, net of the stake in Tim, grew by 4% to 1.211 billion, a new all-time high for the group. The second quarter also closed with improving numbers: revenues of 3.387 billion (+4%), adjusted EBIT of 868 million, and net profit of 594 million (+4%).
Faced with this performance, Poste confirmed both the standalone guidance and the dividend policy for 2026.
“For the fifth consecutive half-year, we have achieved a record result,” emphasized CEO Matteo Del Fante, highlighting how revenue growth involved all the group’s activities. A trend supported by net inflows in investment products, amounting to 2.7 billion, by the improvement in postal savings commercial dynamics, and by the stability of retail deposits, factors that brought invested financial assets to 613 billion euros.
CORRESPONDENCE, INSURANCE, AND POSTEPAY DRIVE THE ACCOUNTS
Driving growth once again was the correspondence, parcels, and distribution division, boosted by logistics expansion and tariff increases applied to correspondence services. Third-party revenues rose by 6.4% in the half-year, to 2.031 billion euros, and by 7% in the second quarter, to 1.028 billion. Financial services generated revenues of 2.967 billion in the half-year (+4.4%), although registering a slight decline in the quarter (-1.6%) to 1.409 billion. Meanwhile, insurance services continued their run, rising to 983 million in the half-year (+8.6%) and 514 million in the quarter (+10.9%), while Postepay confirmed its role as a growth engine with revenues of 860 million in the half-year (+7.3%) and 435 million in the quarter (+7.7%).
On the cost front, the group managed to contain growth to 4.1% in the half-year, at 5.5 billion, despite the wage increases provided by the labor contract and the expansion of activities. It is precisely this balance between revenue development and cost discipline that allowed profitability to improve. Capital solidity remains high, with BancoPosta’s Total Capital Ratio at 22.5%, CET1 ratio at 19.3%, leverage ratio at 3.2%, and the insurance group Poste Vita’s Solvency II at 303%.
THE NEW FINANCIAL HUB AND GROUP REORGANIZATION
The other major news concerns the strategy. The results were also an opportunity to update the market on the next phase of development of the “platform company.” The core of the plan is the new Financial Hub, into which the payments business and the financial and insurance services business will merge. For Poste, the new setup should simplify the corporate structure and promote greater integration among the various activities. The project will start with the reorganization planned by the end of 2026 and will lead from 2027 to a new operational structure, in which the current four divisions will be replaced by three business units: logistics and distribution, financial and insurance services, and, once the Tim operation is completed, connectivity and technology. In this context, the partial spin-off of PostePay, destined to merge into the new financial hub, was also approved.
FROM POST OFFICES TO ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Among the novelties is also the reorganization of the post office network. Poste will create a network of about 1,100 hub offices tasked with coordinating the smaller ones, redistributing commercial staff according to the different needs of customers. A change that was accompanied by the agreement signed with the unions on July 23. At the same time, the group aims to accelerate the use of artificial intelligence both in customer relations and internal processes, through an increasingly integrated omnichannel platform. According to Jefferies analysts, Poste’s management estimates concrete benefits: about 150 million euros in annual IT savings and another 50 million in customer operations over the next four years. Added to these are the possibility of selling more products to the same customers and the synergies that could come from integration with Tim.
THE AGREEMENT WITH CDP ON POSTAL SAVINGS
In the case of Poste and Cdp, it means that the two companies have already reached a preliminary agreement on the renewal of the agreement for the distribution of postal savings in the 2027-2030 period. They will now have to translate it into final contracts. The group reiterates the centrality of postal savings and the intention to adapt the offer to the evolving needs of customers. “We are creating a single Financial Hub to simplify the group’s structure,” explained Del Fante, defining the operation as one of the cornerstones of the new strategy.
TIM AND THE RETURN OF THE STATE IN TELECOMS
Meanwhile, on the Tim dossier, the decisive phase is underway. After the green light from Consob arrived on July 16 for the Opas promoted by Poste, on July 18 Tim’s board of directors judged the offered consideration financially adequate, also expressing a positive assessment of the strategic rationale and industrial prospects of the operation. The subscription period started on July 20 and will end on September 11, with a possible reopening between September 21 and 25. If the operation goes through, the industrial plan of the new integrated entity will be presented in the first quarter of 2027.
The operation, however, also tells another story: that of the return, albeit indirect, of the State to Italian telecommunications. In 1997 the Treasury exited Telecom Italia with privatizations; two years later, Olivetti’s takeover opened a long season of control changes and debts that would mark the group. Today, through Poste Italiane, controlled by the MEF and participated by Cdp, the public sector is ready to re-enter Italy’s main telecommunications company, with a role different from the past.
It is also in this perspective that Del Fante defines Tim as “the ideal complement” to strengthen Poste’s platform. The goal is to integrate financial services, payments, logistics, connectivity, and technology, making the telephone company an accelerator of the strategy outlined with the new Financial Plan, the reorganization of the commercial network, and the extension of artificial intelligence to all the group’s main activities.
