with Orcel the share has tripled the value – Corriere.it

L’last to leave was Jingle Pang, the Chinese super manager that two years ago Andrea Orcel had wanted at all costs in Unicredit, getting her directly from the Ping An insurance group. Pang’s farewell, which will be operational from the end of the current quarter, was communicated on July 4, at the same time as the appointment of her successor: Ali Khan, who joins Unicredit from Pwc and will be group digital & information officeror the person in charge of all the bank’s digital organization and processes, the manager who will keep the keys to the information assets of the Piazza Gae Aulenti group.

From the same day, Gianfranco Bisagni, who until then was head of central Europebecome group chief operating officerclimbing one more step on the ladder of power and Teodora Petkova took its place, becoming group head of central Europe and eastern Europe. A step forward for her too. There is no more room for Bart Schlatmann, the Dutch manager with a past in Ing and Allianz is in fact about to leave Unicredit.

The time factor

What involved Pang and Bisagni is only the last round of waltzes in a concert that has lasted for more than two years and which has featured a long series of top managers of Unicredit, in every sector of activity, from finance to communication. Orcel’s law, they explain in the corridors of the Unicredit tower in Milan: those who make mistakes pay and speed in making decisions, time, is considered a decisive factor. For this reason, in just over two years, many have changed places or even changed banks, even if those who follow him closely limit themselves to saying that he is very demanding and aims for excellence.

Orcel seems to have imported into the management of his first reports, the managers to whom he entrusted the task of implementing the business plan Unicredit unlocked, the same firm principles that made him a ruthless international negotiator. An Anglo-Saxon view. The effect is a whirlwind of changes that increase tensions and create some disorientation. The internal geography of the group is constantly evolving and no one can be said to be calm about their future, their position. From Piazza Gae Aulenti they underline how Unicredit is a bank undergoing transformation and the changes will take place, while those who still want to joke around play on claims of the business plan: Unicredit unlocked, there really isn’t anyone here who could consider himself stuck in his position. From the Unicredit tower they also highlight the other side of the coin, namely that at the same time the quality of the work is rewarded and pushes the most industrious to motivate the team and achieve concrete results. The bank, they say, has become an extraordinary pole of attraction for talent and for the most diverse tasks: applications from professionals and doctoral students in the field have increased digital And risk managementalso driven by the flexibility offered by the group and by economic incentives.

Pang’s position was already shaky a year ago. The Chinese super-expert had never really integrated into the new task and the differences in vision with Orcel had recommended first coaching with managers absolutely faithful to the vision of the managing director and then with external consultants. In mid-2022, after only one year in Piazza Gae Aulenti, Pang seemed to have already reached the end of the line. Now she gets off the bus, officially to get closer to her family, who have always lived between the United Kingdom and China. Pang began in 1991 at the China Construction Bank, then arrived in 2000 at the Standard Chartered Bank (SCB), moving to UBS, still in China and returning to SCB. Your last parenthesis, before arriving at Unicredit, with the Ping An insurance group, whose digital structure you transformed. A feat that she evidently did not succeed in Milan, where Pang never fully integrated, despite the extensive powers obtained from Orcel, which allowed her to change most of her managers to first report of her as soon as she arrived in Piazza Gae Aulenti. Thus the theme of the digital area continues to remain central to Unicredit. The investments that have been included in the industrial plan are proceeding slowly, while the system would need a thorough review and the abandonment of the emergency room logic.

Tripled value

Schlatmann’s exit was also relevant: he was to be one of the strengths alongside Orcel, which lasted eight months. He had replaced Ranieri De Marchis, who was also general manager and who was perhaps too hastily retired, with high expectations after the results obtained with Allianz Direct. Instead, he has already had to leave the coveted seat of coo to Gianfranco Bisagni, perfect man of business both at Italian and European level, for a long time in Unicredit, one of the few able to navigate, in recent years, any type of sea, bringing the ship to port.

Orcel, for his part, proceeds straight ahead. These two years in the saddle of Unicredit, despite some sensational mistakes by recruiting, have confirmed several of its characteristics, revealing others. Indeed, it has proved to be an extraordinary cost cutter. He did not sign an agreement that seemed designed to suit his needs and which would have brought Monte dei Paschi under his control in the autumn of 2021, but he was able to give performance stock exchange titled Unicredit which for many shareholders will be unforgettable. When on 27 January 2021 the Unicredit board of directors indicated him as the successor to Jean Pierre Mustier, the title was worth 7.69 euros. The bank was led in that period of transition, after Mustier’s departure, by De Marchis, who two days later, on 29 January, saw the share slip even further down, to 7.5 euros. In a far from simple period, burdened by the effects of the long tail of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which cost Unicredit more than one billion euros, Orcel with positive quarterly results and purchases of treasury shares (buy-back) caused the title to make a triple somersault, bringing it over 22 euros last Thursday, July 13th. In thirty months the value of the stock tripled, one performance which becomes even better when the generous coupon payments are added to the capital gains. Above all today, Unicredit capitalizes on the stock exchange at 42.6 billion euros, up from 15 billion two years ago, a figure that brings the stock of Piazza Gae Aulenti closer to that of Intesa Sanpaolo, the leading bank on the Italian market, which last Friday in Piazza Affari added a worth 44.6 billion euros. It remains, in Orcel’s vision, to recover a gap of two billion of capitalization compared to the main competitor on the domestic market. Nothing compared to the differences recorded in 2021. The remote duel will see a new direct confrontation in a few days. Unicredit will communicate the data for the first half of 2023 on Wednesday 26 July (bod on 25). Intesa Sanpaolo will meet the board to approve the half-year report on Friday 28.

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