(Recasts to add CEO, CFO comments at analyst conference call)
By Francesca Landini
MILAN, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Poste Italiane said onWednesday it could expand its asset management business andoffer new investment products through its 13,000 branches afterreporting a nearly 30 percent rise in 9-month operating profit.
The national post office, once a byword for inefficientpublic administration, has turned into a conglomerate thatoffers banking and insurance services on top of traditional mailand parcel delivery.
It was partly privatised a year ago and is now focusing onasset management, parcel delivery and transaction banking togrow and offset a drastic fall in traditional postal services.
"Because we are a powerful distribution network, we may lookat opportunities to grow in asset management," CEO FrancescoCaio told an analyst conference call, adding the group wouldtake a disciplined approach to potential acquisitions.
Poste CFO Luigi Ferraris added the group had room to fundacquisitions through debt, given its 274 million euro netindustrial financial surplus at the end of September.
Ferraris also said Poste had planned to extract value fromits real estate assets, which could give the group morefinancial firepower next year if needed.
The two top managers made no mention of any target, butsources have previously said the group could present on Thursdaya binding offer to buy UniCredit's asset managerPioneer in a deal worth more than 3 billion euros.
The state-controlled group is expected to table a bid forPioneer together with Italian asset gatherer Anima Holding and state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP),sources have said.
Amundi, Europe's biggest asset manager, U.S.-basedAmeriprise Financial, Australia's Macquarie andScottish Aberdeen Asset Management are also expected tobid for Pioneer.
Poste Italiane said its earnings before interest and taxes(EBIT) rose in the first nine months of the year to 1.196billion euros ($1.3 billion), boosted by continued growth of itsinsurance business and a capital gain from the sale of a stakein Visa Europe.
Analysts were expecting an operating profit of 1.146 billioneuros in the period.
Revenues were up nearly 8 percent year-on-year to 25.7billion euros, in line with a consensus of 25.68 billion euros.($1 = 0.9142 euros) (Editing by Tom Heneghan)