Four hours weren't enough Board of Unicredit, who met remotely in an extraordinary way yesterday afternoon to decide whether to run again or not the CEO Jean Pierre Mustier at the helm of the Bank, whether or not to continue negotiations for the dowry marriage with Monte dei Paschi and whether to merge or not the foreign assets in a sub-holding to be listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. People and strategies go hand in hand, but the stakes are very high and will require further discussions: the first will take place on Wednesday in the nomination committee and the second in a new board meeting set for Thursday.
The succession of meetings makes it clear that we are tight and that the first and most important knot to untie concerns Mustier's future: will he be re-nominated or not on the occasion of the renewal of offices scheduled for the spring assembly? And, in turn, will Mustier want to reapply if his strategy, which looks coldly at Italian banking mergers and instead supports the creation of a subholding of Unicredit's foreign assets, is not fully accepted?
It is up to the outgoing Board of Directors to present the list of the new board with the indication of the CEO and the president of Unicredit, but the fact that the totonomine for the possible succession to Mustier has already started and that it includes both internal and external candidates to the bank is already a significant sign. As for strategy, the question of alliances is fundamental: continue in solitude, as Mustier prefers, or open to negotiations with the Treasury to acquire Monte dei Paschi in exchange for a rich dowry? The presence on the Unicredit board of directors of former minister Pier Carlo Padoan, who should become president in the spring and who at the time negotiated the rescue plan of the Sienese bank with the EU and who is perfectly aware of the Monte's situation, suggests what the wishes of the system, i.e of the Treasury and the Bank of Italy, who would like to secure MPS, respecting the agreements made at the time with Brussels.
The future of Mustier and Unicredit is played out on these tables and perhaps we will know more this week
