UniCredit announced today that its current CEO, Jean Pierre Mustier, has informed the board of directors that he will step down from his role at the end of his current mandate, which expires in April 2021 along with that of the entire Board. “First of all, I would like to thank all the colleagues in the group for their extraordinary commitment in recent years. Together we have successfully implemented the Transform 2019 plan and, as a result, we are in a strong position to continue to support our customers and communities in all our countries while remaining a truly winning pan-European Group, ”said Mustier. «Over the last few months, however – he added -, it has emerged that the strategy of the Team 23 Plan and its founding pillars are no longer in line with the current vision of the board of directors. Consequently, I made the decision to leave the group at the end of my mandate in April 2021, in order to allow the Council to define the future strategy ».
The rumors were chasing each other since the afternoon and Unicredit ended the exchanges in Piazza Affari with a thud of almost 5%. That it is a political question, and not of numbers, is a fact. Since his arrival at Unicredit four years ago, Mustier has considerably reduced the amount of the bank’s bad debts, simplified the organizational structure, restored the balance sheet and sold non-essential assets. Before the slowdown due to the pandemic, the institution was in good financial condition. He was also ready for a possible acquisition, perhaps – other indiscretions reported – of the German Commerzbank. Especially since in the meantime the launch of Intesa Sanpaolo’s takeover bid on Ubi has reduced the best candidates for an aggregation in Italy.
But in the plans of the Italian Treasury, Unicredit would be the white knight of the Sienese institute. And the eventual exit of Mustier could speed up the process. The institute’s nominations committee will meet this week, following last Sunday’s informal board meeting. In April 2021 the mandate for the entire board expires, meanwhile the former minister Pier Paolo Padoan has already been co-opted. An important name, that of Padoan, who followed the Mps dossier during his stay in via XX Settembre. Among the names circulated in the press for a possible change at the helm of Unicredit is that of Matteo Del Fante, CEO of Poste. In a note, the group described the indiscretion reported by the newspapers as “stripped of any foundation”.
Among the eligible candidates also Victor Massiah, former CEO of Ubi Banca, or Marco Morelli, until a few months ago at the helm of MPS. The discussion on governance is therefore inevitably intertwined with the possible evaluation of an operation with the Sienese institute. Equita Sim analysts believe that a deal could prove to be neutral in terms of risk and capital for Unicredit only in the event of full recognition of the DTAs of both banks (approximately 3.6 billion each), as well as with a capital increase of 2.5 billion.
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