Unicredit wants to leave Russia and is looking for a buyer to acquire its assets in Moscow. The news has been known for months, but as revealed by Reuters – which cites two sources informed about the facts – the bank led by Andrea Orcel would have intensified its efforts and extended the search for a buyer beyond local investors, focusing on countries such as India and China (and perhaps even Turkey) which have not supported the sanctions imposed by the West and may therefore be interested in assets whose price has fallen due to the exit from the country of Western companies following the invasion of Ukraine. Furthermore, according to one of the Reuters sources, Unicredit has already started negotiations with potential investors.
Unicredit could therefore soon become yet another company to leave Russia. In recent weeks, he continues Reuters, various market sources had signaled that the institute was evaluating all the options for the farewell, provided that the operation took place under conditions such as do not penalize stakeholders excessively.
Last May, however, Orcel had underlined the difficulty finding a Russian buyer for its subsidiary due to sanctions imposed by the West. Twice, the CEO revealed, the bank failed to conclude important agreements to reduce its exposure because its counterparty was hit by sanctions shortly before the signing.
Last week, on the sidelines of final considerations of the Bank of Italy, Orcel reassured however that “Russia is no longer a problem” for Unicredit after the actions taken by the bank in the "first quarter". The institute has in fact made provisions to compensate for future losses.
The exhibition in Russia, “as I keep repeating, we are managing it and we will talk about it when we have managed it. We have already taken an important step in the first quarter, we plan to take another in the second,” Orcel added speaking to the microphones of Class CNBC.
We recall that UniCredit is one of the European banks with the greatest exposure to Russia, where it manages the 14th credit institution in the country.
In Piazza Affari, after the news reported by Reuters, the Unicredit title rises by 2% to 10,808 euros.
