UniCredit CEO’s pay draws fresh criticism from investor advisers

By Valentina Za

MILAN (Reuters) -Leading investor advisory firms have again raised concerns over the salary of UniCredit CEO Andrea Orcel, with one recommending for a second straight year shareholders vote against his pay.

Orcel, former head of investment banking at Swiss bank UBS, narrowly dodged an investor revolt over the remuneration package that made him one of Europe’s best paid bank CEOs when he took the reins at UniCredit last April.

Leading proxy advisers Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis again took aim at his compensation ahead of an annual general meeting on April 8, but ISS stopped short of calling for investors to reject the bank’s pay policy.

Orcel received 6.7 million euros ($7.4 million) from UniCredit in 2021, including 4.8 million euro in shares as a sign-on bonus unrelated to performance.

He had forfeited millions in deferred pay from UBS in joining.

His variable pay, equivalent to up to twice the fixed annual pay of 2.5 million euros, is from 2022 linked to targets set under the ‘UniCredit Unlocked’ plan Orcel unveiled in December.

While acknowledging the “improved framework” for Orcel’s remuneration, ISS said the package remained “concerning and of particular concern is the high cap to severance payments (15 million euros or six times the fixed pay).”

Glass Lewis went further, saying it did not believe “the company’s remuneration strategy, as currently constituted, is sufficiently aligned with shareholders’ best interests.”

“As such, we do not believe that this proposal merits shareholder support”, it added in a report seen by Reuters.

Orcel’s pay package passed with just 54% of votes last year and was rejected by BlackRock, UniCredit’s leading investor and the world’s largest asset manager.

Orcel’s pay is double that of previous CEO Jean Pierre Mustier, who left without a severance payment.

Glass Lewis said it was worried UniCredit had not paid sufficient heed to the dissent shareholders expressed last year.

“While the company indicated that it engaged with shareholders, we are concerned that it failed to specifically address the results of the 2021 annual general meeting,” it said.

UniCredit has reached out to 55% of its investors and believes to have addressed the points raised in 2021, a person close to the bank said. ($1 = 0.9114 euros)

(Additional reporting by Francesca Landini and Agnieszka Flak; Editing by Keith Weir)