UniCredit to evaluate CEO pay rise forward of normal assembly By Reuters

By Valentina Za

MILAN (Reuters) -UniCredit will reassess the remuneration of CEO Andrea Orcel forward of its 2023 normal assembly to see if the outcomes achieved by Italy’s second-biggest financial institution in 2021-2022 warrant a rise, a doc on its web site confirmed.

UniCredit Chairman Pier Carlo Padoan mentioned in an emailed remark late on Friday that the financial institution’s remuneration committee would make a advice to the board on the CEO’s pay “incorporating views of buyers and wider stakeholders,” including the CEO himself had not requested for a increase.

UniCredit’s newest remuneration report famous that the CEO’s present pay construction and a regulatory ceiling – that caps variable pay at twice the mounted quantity – prevented the financial institution from rewarding over-performance when targets had been exceeded.

“The board examined Orcel’s pay package deal in gentle of the necessary efficiency reached in 2021 beneath his management,” the report mentioned. “Orcel individually indicated … he prefers to maintain his mounted pay unchanged and have his variable pay intently linked to efficiency objectives,” it added.

“The board agrees … and can reassess Orcel’s pay forward of the 2023 normal shareholder assembly in gentle of outcomes and progress made in 2021 and 2022,” it concluded.

The previous head of funding banking at UBS arrived at UniCredit in April 2021, vowing to reverse a section of “lively retrenchment” beneath the risk-averse earlier CEO Jean Pierre Mustier.

Orcel is popping the financial institution round from a business standpoint, however he has to this point failed, like his predecessor, to strike a merger and acquisition deal.

After dropping the proposed takeover of smaller rival Monte dei Paschi, Orcel pledged to return greater than 16 billion euros in dividends and buybacks to buyers by 2024. He maintained the financial institution might hit the distribution objective even in a extreme recession after the Ukraine conflict and vitality disaster prompted banking supervisors to name for warning.

On his arrival at UniCredit, Orcel narrowly dodged a shareholder revolt over his pay, which is double that of Mustier, with main investor advisory companies once more elevating issues over his wage in March.

Annual pay of as much as 7.5 million euros makes Orcel certainly one of Europe’s finest paid financial institution executives, analysts say.

Orcel’s distribution promise lifted UniCredit shares to a four-year excessive of 15.7 euros earlier than the conflict, from 8.5 euros simply earlier than he took over, giving the CEO ammunition for potential M&A offers paid for in shares.

However the financial institution’s massive publicity to Russia, a enterprise Orcel has to this point held on to, has seen its shares ease once more, to shut on Friday at 12.5 euros.

The Monetary Occasions first reported UniCredit sought a pay hike for Orcel citing folks conversant in the matter.