UniCredit’s market capitalization crossed the 60 billion euro threshold on Tuesday, the Italian group becoming one of the four banks in the Eurozone to cross this threshold, reports Bloomberg.

Shares in UniCredit rose as much as 3.5 percent to a 13-year high after the Italian bank reported better-than-expected quarterly results. The improvement in market capitalization brought UniCredit into a select group of banks with a market value of more than 60 billion euros, a group that also includes BNP Paribas SA, Banco Santander SA and Intesa Sanpaolo SpA, according to Agerpres.

UniCredit is one of the main beneficiaries of the rapid increase in interest rates implemented by the European Central Bank in the last two years. This effect is likely to dissipate as the ECB is expected to ease monetary policy starting in June. Along this line, general manager Andrea Orcel placed UniCredit at the forefront of shareholder reward programs, given that starting from 2021 and up to now, the Italian bank has returned almost 18 billion euros to shareholders through share buybacks and dividends. Under these conditions, UniCredit shares have risen by almost 46% this year, some of the best performances recorded by European banks. UniCredit shares are now worth nearly four times what they were three years ago when Orcel was appointed CEO. According to the results communicated by UniCredit on Tuesday, in the first quarter of this year, the banking group made a net profit of 2.6 billion euros, up 24% compared to the same period last year, as well as net revenues of 6.3 billion EUR, up 7% year-on-year, with net interest income of EUR 3.6 billion and commissions of EUR 2.1 billion, driven by robust business growth, underpinned by customer focus and continuously fueled by new products. The UniCredit Group is one of the largest banking groups in Central and Eastern Europe, where it generates approximately 16% of its revenues. In Romania, the UniCredit Group is present through UniCredit Bank, UniCredit Consumer Financing, UniCredit Leasing Corporation, UniCredit Insurance Broker, UniCredit Leasing Fleet Management and UniCredit Services.