MILAN (Reuters) – UniCredit shareholders voted on Friday to give Chief Executive Andrea Orcel another three-year mandate and backed a remuneration policy that makes him one of Europe’s highest-paid bankers.
The meeting was attended by shareholders representing 68.8% of the bank’s capital, with US asset manager BlackRock (NYSE:) and German insurer Allianz (ETR:) being the two largest investors.
“I don’t take my position for granted. I view it as something that needs to be continually earned,” Orcel said in a written statement to shareholders.
“We have made excellent progress over the past three years, but our transformation journey is not over yet… We will remain relentless in our commitment to improve. This is the culture that I want to spread throughout all levels of our group during my second term as CEO,” he added.
Orcel and other board candidates nominated by the bank’s outgoing director received 91.5% of the vote, according to UniCredit.
After a board meeting on Friday, the bank said it had appointed former Italian Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan as chairman and academic Elena Carletti as deputy vice-chair.
Shareholders representing 88% of share capital entitled to vote at the meeting backed UniCredit’s 2024 remuneration policy, which drew criticism from lead proxy adviser Glass Lewis.
After the European Banking Authority sought clarification on how to calculate the price of shares awarded as part of remuneration packages to 800 so-called material risk takers, UniCredit increased the CEO’s fixed salary by 10.8%, paid in shares.
The fixed salary is currently €3.6 million, with the total target salary being €8.6 million instead of €7.5 million, and the maximum salary that applies if targets are exceeded reaching €10.8 million.
A former investment banker, Orcel has bet on huge cashbacks for investors as a way to boost UniCredit’s share price, which is close to the 70% discount to book value that was when the CEO took office in 2021.
Europe’s most experienced bank dealmaker, Orcel has so far avoided big deals, saying he would only take the step if he could preserve current shareholder returns while boosting profitability by at least 10%.