UniCredit CEO says pan-European ambitions take precedence over Italian consolidation

By Valentina Za and Giuseppe Fonte

MILAN, March 18 (Reuters) – A potential combination with Commerzbank is currently the priority for UniCredit though further consolidation in Italy could still provide opportunities in the future, CEO Andrea Orcel said on Wednesday.

Speaking at a Morgan Stanley financial conference in London, Orcel said the process of consolidation in Italian banking will be decided by shareholders who effectively exercise control over their respective companies.

He said there were three banking groups that, in the prevailing view, could consider tie-ups among themselves or with UniCredit.

His comment appeared to refer to Italy’s three mid-sized lenders: Banco BPM, whose main shareholder is France’s Credit Agricole, Monte dei Paschi di Siena where the top two investors are the Del Vecchio and Caltagirone families, and BPER where the main investor is insurer Unipol.

“I let you speculate what the view of the shareholders in … every one of the three situation is. But at the moment, it is fair to say that we have not seen… any opening for negotiating anything,” he said.

“When you have, let’s say, de facto controlling shareholders in those groups, they all want something, and landing to a situation where everybody’s happy is a lot more difficult than what we’re talking about here today,” he added.

In an apparent reference to Monte dei Paschi, Orcel said one situation was “more fluid” than the others, with shareholders called to name a new chief executive soon.

“It’s not exactly a moment where the next day they want to do something with someone else. There is a lag,” he said.

UniCredit is “very proud” of its Italian roots, Orcel said, “but to a certain extent, these are roots that we have much expanded, okay? Our model of bank, our vision of where we want to go is pan-European.”

Present in 13 European markets, UniCredit controls German bank HVB and its ambitions over Commerzbank pre-date Orcel’s arrival at the helm in 2021.

Successive Italian governments have feared the country’s second-largest lender would lose part of its Italian identity and become too German.

The current government, which has kept silent on Orcel’s bid for Commerzbank, remains firmly opposed to UniCredit moving its corporate centre to Germany, a person with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

UniCredit has previously ruled out it could consider such a move.

(Editing by Gavin Jones)