A clean-up of the balance sheet accompanied by the strengthening of the capital, the refocusing of the business towards a soul above all as a commercial bank and more simplicity in the structure. Ghizzoni's recipe for the new Unicredit moves along clear lines of discontinuity with the past.
The new CEO Federico Ghizzoni does not directly disavow the work done so far by his predecessor Alessandro Profumo: "Over the past 10 years the group has gone from being a domestic bank to a large European bank through various acquisitions - said Ghizzoni - and from my point of view was a successful growth. A process that has created a high level of goodwill that we have decided to cut significantly”. But in fact the posthumous judgment on the Profumo management passes precisely through those 8,4 billion of goodwill write-down (the value of which thus passes from approximately 20,2 billion to 11,5 billion). Not only that: compared to the past, in order to guarantee a sustainable return in the future, also in the light of the current macroeconomic situation, it is necessary to reduce the complexity of the structure and concentrate on the core business. Hence a renewed focus on the commercial bank compared to the direction taken by universal bank in the past ("you can't do everything, you have to choose and for us the core business is the commercial bank", said Ghizzoni), greater selectivity on European activities (with investments only in countries considered truly strategic such as Russia, Poland, Turkey and the Czech Republic) an intense work of turnaround of the business in Italy (by increasing deposits and cutting costs with 5.200 outgoing resources), with managers sent to all branches in the area to explain the business plan to employees in detail. A plan defined by Ghizzoni as "ambitious" because it aims to place Unicredit among the top commercial banks at European level but also "realistic" because it is based on a prudent macroeconomic scenario. Growth actions that were built on "a strong balance sheet" which Ghizzoni says "will not create any surprises for the future".
The numbers of the plan predict for 2015 profits of 6,5 billion from 1,3 at the end of 2010, a Roe of 12% from 3,6% last year, a core tier 1 higher than 10% on the basis of Basel parameters 3, the reduction in the cost of risk from 123 basis points in 2010 to 75 basis points and a pay out ratio of 39% compared to 42% in 2010. The stock on the Stock Exchange fell by 6,18%, after being suspended downwards. In fact, the market is currently focusing on the losses recorded in the third quarter following the write-downs (which bring the result of the first nine months into the red by 9,3 billion), on the imminent recapitalization of 7,5 billion launched by the group after the verdict of the 'Eba and on the prospect of a 2011 financial year without a dividend.
