UniCredit’s New Business Plan Will Focus on Organic Growth, Not Mergers

(Bloomberg) -- UniCredit SpA’s new business plan will be based on organic growth, Chief Executive Officer Jean Pierre Mustier told Milano Finanza.

“The plan will have organic growth as its precondition,” Mustier told the newspaper in an interview published on Saturday. The Milan-based bank’s CEO reiterated that at the moment he doesn’t see a combination with another major lender as a possibility. UniCredit was said to have hired advisers to work on a potential takeover of Germany’s Commerzbank AG earlier this year.

Mustier is working on a strategic plan that he will present in London on Dec. 3. UniCredit is taking steps to strengthen its financial position by reducing funding costs, cutting its domestic-bond portfolio and accelerating the cleanup of soured debt.

Earlier this year, the lender raised more than 2 billion euros ($2.24 billion) by selling its stake in FinecoBank SpA. Mustier also said that the new plan will try to simplify the way the bank does business to enhance efficiency.

To contact the reporters on this story: Sonia Sirletti in Milan at ssirletti@bloomberg.net;Lorenzo Totaro in Rome at ltotaro@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Fergal O'Brien at fobrien@bloomberg.net, James Amott, Sam Unsted

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.