MILAN (S&P Global Ratings) Feb. 1, 2023--S&P Global Ratings today said that UniCredit SpA's (BBB/Stable/A-2) announced 2022 results demonstrate that its profitability will continue to strongly benefit from rising interest rates and cost-containment initiatives. UniCredit reported higher-than-anticipated 2022 net income, mainly thanks to sharp net interest income growth and lower credit losses, where we had previously anticipated larger provisions on UniCredit's residual Russian exposures and a write-down of its participation in the local subsidiary. At the same time, we note that higher profits didn't result in a significant change in our risk-adjusted capital (RAC) expectations, because a larger-than-expected capital distribution of about €5.25 billion (€1.9 billion cash dividend and €3.3 billion share buyback) largely reduced the potential benefit from stronger
