Changing of the guard in sight at Unicredit. Today the CEO Federico Ghizzoni will be in Madrid for the ceremonies for the opening of the institute's Spanish branch of investment banking. Tomorrow Ghizzoni himself should resign in the hands of the Board, but, pending the choice of a successor, he will remain in full powers.
The change of course of the Bank, moreover, will go far beyond the appointment of the new number one, for which various candidates are looming: Marco Morelli, Bofa-Merrill Lynch vice president for Europe and the Middle East, Flavio Valeri (Deutsche Bank Italia ), the French Jean-Pierre Mustier, ex Unicredit, as well as that of Alberto Nagel, CEO of Mediobanca. President Giuseppe Vita is also leaving, who could give way to Lucrezia Reichlin, former chief economist of the ECB.
Beyond the names, the strategies need to be reviewed: the international shareholders are pressing for a capital increase of between 5-7 billion, a solution that the Foundations do not like, forced in this case to heavy dilutions. Hence the alternative represented by the sale of assets starting from the payment management activities. The list of sales could continue with Fineco Bank, the Polish subsidiary Pekao and the Turkish Yapì Credit. In the wake of these rumours, the institute achieved a 7,5% rise on Friday.
“Relationships with the board are transparent. We will continue to work together as long as there is enough trust”, said Ghizzoni, in Madrid for the opening of a branch, answering journalists' questions about the change at the top of the bank expected for tomorrow.
“There is still no confirmation” of a board of directors for tomorrow – he added – “for now there is only a save the date. There are no tensions in the group, otherwise I wouldn't be here".
As for the hypothesis of sales of subsidiaries that would be subject to evaluation by the institute, the CEO indicated: “We have never discussed sales of Pekao or Fineco. We have a development plan. We know that we have to work on capital, the requirements are increasingly stringent so it is normal that banks are focused on this".
