People Moves
UniCredit CEO Resigns, Sparking Analyst Fears Of Managerial Instability

Alessandro Profumo, the chief executive of UniCredit, has resigned after 15 years at the helm of the of the Italian banking group, sparking concern from analysts that his departure will jeopardise the success of the bank’s restructuring programme.
The bank’s board said in a statement that the directors, and Profumo himself, had come to agree that the time is right for a change of leadership. Until a new CEO is found executive powers have been transferred to Dieter Rampl, the bank’s chairman, who additionally has been asked to identify and propose Profumo’s successor within the coming weeks, the statement continued.
The latter end of Profumo’s tenure has been troubled by what has been seen as a power struggle between Profumo and the shareholders of the regional Italian banks that were combined to form the UniCredit group. Profumo had reportedly threatened to resign back in March in the face of resistance from cash-hungry shareholder foundations to the revamp plan.
Central to the “One4C” programme has been the merger of seven subsidiary banks (UniCredit Private Banking, UniCredit Family Financing Bank, UniCredit Banca, UniCredit Banca di Roma, Banco di Sicilia, UniCredit Corporate Banking, UniCredit Bancassurance Management and Administration) with the parent company.
Also part of the changes was the appointment in April of Gabriele Piccini as country chairman for Italy, who was previously CEO of UniCredit Banca and head of the Italian retail network. Piccini assumes the Italian chairmanship at the start of November when the new set-up becomes operational.
During his tenure Profumo is credited with having overseen UniCredit's transformation from a local player into one of Europe’s largest banking groups. The bank’s market capitalisation rose over the 15 years from €1.5 billion ($2 billion) to approximately €37 billion.
“We see Profumo's departure as a negative catalyst for the [group’s] shares: the bank's profitability is suffering from low interest rates and high provisions, and in our view needs a strong management team with the ability to take strategic decisions,” Standard & Poor’s said in a statement on Profumo’s departure.
“We fear that Profumo's departure may translate into managerial instability, delays in the execution of the ‘One4C’ project (the merger of seven subsidiaries into a single entity) as well as increased political interferences in Unicredit's day-to-day activities.”