Legal setback for Banco Santander and for its president,

Ana Botín

, due to the frustrated signing of

Andrea Orcel

as CEO of the financial group. The judgment signed by the magistrate Javier Sánchez Beltrán that obliges the bank to pay compensation of 68 million euros to the Italian financier concludes that the contract signed by the parties in September 2018 was legal and that its termination four months later, even before Orcel taking office was "unilateral and unjustified" by the Spanish bank.

The judge supports his sentence in the numerous private messages exchanged between Botín herself and Orcel during the months that the signing process lasted. Both executives were good friends and in fact it was the president of Santander herself who promoted his hiring to complete the process of relief at the top after the death of his father. Botín herself boasted of her incorporation "in a particularly eloquent way" on Twitter one day after announcing it to investors, as stated in the sentence: "It is great news that Andrea joins José Antonio [current CEO of the bank] and me to carry out our vision. "

But soon that euphoria was transformed into a soap opera that still has not closed, since the bank itself announced yesterday that it will appeal the sentence before the

Provincial Court of Madrid.

The agreement between the parties included that the bank would pay a maximum of 52 million euros to the Italian financier to compensate for the deferred remuneration and bonuses at UBS that he was not going to receive for leaving the Swiss group, where he was head of investments at the European level. There was "expectation", in any case, "that Orcel could receive some of these incentives", which would reduce the cost of the transfer.

But UBS was strict and refused to collaborate in the payment of his compensation, which made Santander fall under the full burden of the payment. The sentence collects numerous emails and whatsapp between Botín and Orcel to update each other on how the banker's exit process from UBS was going. These messages started even before both parties signed the contract. "There is a line that I had reserved for Axel [Weber, president of UBS]: if they decide that they do not pay you anything because we are competitors then it is good to know it and that they cannot be our strategic advisers - that is irrefutable and an elegant way of saying the things- ", appeared in an email sent by Botín to Orcel on September 10, 2018. The Italian continued to pressure the UBS council to agree to compensation.

In addition to the messages, the judge reiterates that the approval of the contract by the board of directors and its announcement through various public media made the appointment effective, thus discarding the arguments put forward by the bank that it was actually that was approved by the leadership was a letter-offer that, in any case, should be approved by the general meeting of shareholders. "From all of the foregoing, it can be concluded that, ultimately, the contract was unilaterally and unjustified by Banco Santander," concludes the magistrate.

In this way, the ruling obliges the group to pay 68 million euros to Orcel, which has currently been relocated as CEO of the Italian Unicredit.

The amount includes 17 million for the "incorporation bonus", 35 million for "assumption of long-term incentives", 5.8 million for the remuneration of the two years in which he was unemployed and 10 million for "compensation for moral and reputational damages ".

In this last sense, the judge admits that the relevant event in which the suspension of his transfer was announced could have caused him "considerable frustration, unease, uncertainty and a certain discredit in the banking sphere."

For their part, Banco Santander sources yesterday expressed their "total disagreement" with the judicial decision, announced an appeal and recalled that justice has already proved the bank right in the two complaints filed against the group by Orcel's legal team.

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