MILAN, April 12 (Reuters) - UniCredit shareholders on
Friday voted to give CEO Andrea Orcel another three-year mandate
and backed the remuneration policy that makes him one of
Europe's best-paid bankers.
Shareholders representing 68.8% of the bank's capital
attended the meeting, with U.S. asset manager BlackRock ( BLK )
and German insurer Allianz the top two investors.
"I don't take my position for granted. I see it as something
that you have to continually earn," Orcel said in written
remarks to shareholders.
"We have made excellent progress in the last three years,
but our transformation journey is not over ... We will be
relentless in our determination to improve. This is the culture
I want to spread across all levels of our group during my second
term as CEO," he added.
Orcel and the other board candidates put forward by the
bank's outgoing directors got 91.5% of votes, UniCredit said.
Following a board meeting later on Friday, the bank said it
had named Italy's former Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan as
chair of the board and academic Elena Carletti as deputy vice
chair.
Shareholders representing 88% of the share capital entitled
to vote at the meeting backed UniCredit's 2024 remuneration
policy, which had drawn criticism from leading proxy adviser
Glass Lewis.
Following a clarification requested to the European Banking
Authority over how to calculate the price of shares assigned as
part of pay packages to the bank's 800 so-called material risk
takers, UniCredit has increased the CEO's fixed pay by 10.8%,
payable in shares.
The fixed pay now stands at 3.6 million euros, with the
overall target pay standing at 8.6 million from 7.5 million and
the maximum pay, which applies when targets are surpassed,
reaching up to 10.8 million euros.
A former investment banker, Orcel has bet on an outsized
cashback to investors as the way to lift UniCredit's share
price, which has almost close a discount to book value that
amounted to 70% when the CEO took over in 2021.
Europe's most experienced banking dealmaker, Orcel has shied
away so far from major deals, saying he would only move if he
can preserve current shareholder returns while boosting
profitability by at least 10%.