Unicredit names ex-investment bank head Mustier as new chief

Struggling Italian lender UniCredit named a former head of its investment bank to the post of chief executive, potentially opening the door to asset sales, according to multiple reports.

The previous boss of Italy´s largest bank, Federico Ghizzoni, stepped down in May.

In his place, overnight on Thursday Milan-based UniCredit chose Jean-Pierre Mustier as his successor.

UniCredit had been left reeling by a stagnating Italian economy that had pushed its non-performing loans to approximately €38bn, versus a market capitalisation of €11.9bn.

Its stock was trading at just 26% of the company´s tangible book value, according to Bloomberg.

Brussels had recently blocked an attempt by the government in Rome to create a so-called 'bad bank' to help clean-up its ailing financial system.

Officials were said to be mulling injecting as much as €40.0bn into the country´s banks, either via directly injecting fresh capital or by pledging state guarantees.

According to Reuters, UniCredit would look to sell its online bank Fineco, its Polish unit and asset manager Pioneer but its German arm HVB would be spared from the auction block, neither would a divestment of its Turkish unit be a priority.

Another report indicated that a rights issue was a possibility.

As of 14:48 BST shares in UniCredit were lower by 0.31% to €1.92.