Unless he has a change of heart, it doesn't look like the UniCredit CEO will jilt his current employer for another rival.
UniCredit CEO Andrea Orcel said he would not be tempted to become CEO of Credit Suisse when asked in an interview with «Bloomberg TV,» saying «I love UniCredit too much.»
In the early part of this year, Orcel was planning to have informal discussions with Commerzbank CEO Manfred Knof about merging UniCredit's German subsidiary HypoVereinsbank with the German lender, according to a report in the «Financial Times» (behind paywall) which cited people familiar with the matter.
Those Plans Were Shelved
A successful transaction would have created Germany's second-largest bank with €785 billion ($825 billion) in assets with 1,000 branches and nearly 50,000 employees. Those but those plans were shelved, however, when Russia invaded Ukraine leading UniCredit to focus on managing its substantial exposure to Russia.
HypoVereinsbank, was acquired by UniCredit in 2005 and has a strong presence in Bavaria and Hamburg. A tie-up of the German subsidiary with Commerzbank is seen as an ideal fit as the latter has a strong Germany-wide presence.
Another merger plan fell through when talks with the Italian government on acquiring Siena-based Monte dei Paschi, the world's oldest bank. Seemingly undaunted, Orcel continues to look for opportunities.
Closer Financial Ties
In the «Bloomberg» interview, he said the silver lining of the situation in Ukraine is that «Europe seems to have come together», and is something that UniCredit is well-positioned to benefit from closer financial ties in Europe.
In light of that, he said «If we find acquisitions that make sense strategically, they reinforce our position, they accelerate the plan that we have in the single country or client segments that we have, and that can be done at attractive terms, we will do them.«
Russia Wave-Off
As recently as January, Orcel sat at a table with Vladimir Putin to discuss business opportunities for Italian companies in Russia, while also considering a possible merger with state-owned bank Otkritie, as finews.com reported.
Orcel was eyeing Otkritie at a time when UniCredit aims to lift the bank's annual profits by 10 percent over the next few years. The Italian bank generates about 3 percent of its revenues in Russia and employs more than 4,000 staff in the country.
If we are to take German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe at his word when he wrote that «we are shaped and fashioned by what we love», it would seem for Orcel, that is pursuing mergers for UniCredit.
