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03 December 2019
Unicredit expects to cut costs in Western Europe by one billion under the new strategic plan by 2023. Savings will also be achieved by reducing the staff of another 8,000 and closing another 500 branches. The integration costs will amount to 1.4 billion and will be expensed by 300 million (relative to Germany and Austria) in the fourth quarter of this year and to 1.1 billion (relative to Italy) in 2020.

The 8,000 cuts by Unicredit staff will be concentrated mainly in Italy, Germany and Austria, where staff will be reduced by a total of 21% and 25% of the branches will be closed. Our country appears destined to support the largest part of the redundancies: of the 1.4 billion euros of integration costs estimated for their management, in fact, 1.1 billion will cover Italy (equal to 78% of the total) and only 0.3 billion Austria and Germany.


In the 2023 plan, the bank aims for 1 billion in gross savings in Western Europe, equivalent to 12 percent of the 2018 cost base. This can be read in the note on the strategic objectives of the 'Team 23' which is based on four pillars: increase and strengthening the customer base, transforming and maximizing productivity, disciplined risk management and controls, capital and balance sheet management.


Unicredit will distribute approximately € 8 billion to its shareholders, between coupons and share repurchase, over the 2020-2023 plan, of which € 6 billion represented by cash dividends and € 2 billion from the repurchase of treasury shares. For 2019, according to a statement, the Piazza Gae Aulenti group has decided to double the capital distribution envisaged by the previous plan to 40%, of which 10% through buy-back and 30% with dividends.


Through the continuous transformation and simplification of processes, the Group will achieve three main objectives: Improvement of the customer experience; Increased productivity throughout the value chain; Reduction of operational risk. The dematerialisation of processes, which will lead to the paperless retail bank, will produce cost savings for the Group of over 150 million per year by 2023.