Behind one of the most spectacular operations that European finances have seen since the 2008 financial crisis lies a determined and ruthless figure, a high-flying banker considered the best deal maker (“negotiator”) of Europe, according to those who have known him or observed him in action. In September, the president and CEO of the Italian bank UniCredit, Andrea Orcel, 61, twice surprised by acquiring a stake in the German lender Commerzbank, first with 9% and then announcing, on Monday, September 23, an increase of its participation to 21%.
Mr. Orcel’s maneuver, described as” hostile “ by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, could lead to a merger and the creation of a European banking giant. It would be an important test, at a time when the reports on competitiveness and the single market presented to Brussels by the former presidents of the Italian council Mario Draghi and Enrico Letta relaunch the idea of a necessary consolidation of the sector at the level of the European Union , in the context of the Banking Union and the Capital Markets Union.
Before carrying it out himself, the hostile takeovers had served as the subject of a university thesis for the young Andrea Orcel, a graduate in economics from the University of Rome, after having attended the prestigious Lycée Chateaubriand, a French educational center popular among the elite of the Italian capital. After earning an MBA from the prestigious European Institute of Business Administration at Fontainebleau and working at Goldman Sachs and Boston Consulting Group, Mr. Orcel’s career took off at Merrill Lynch, where he joined in 1992.
difficult character
With this, investment banking becomes essential in Europe for cross-border banking mergers. He then played an important role in the creation of UniCredit – a bank he will take over in 2021 –, working on the €21 billion merger of Unicredito and Credito Italiano in 1998. Orcel then advised the new entity during the acquisition of the Bavarian lender HVB, which offers the Italian group the German anchor that will be useful for its future offensive on Commerzbank.
In twenty years at Merrill Lynch, Andrea Orcel rose through the ranks, earned the trust of the biggest names in European finance and built an image that combined a certain virtuosity with a difficult character that earned him the nickname “Cristiano Ronaldo of bankers.” “. in reference to the Portuguese star footballer. However, his long time in investment banking was not without failures. Thus, in 2007, he advised RBS on the acquisition of ABN Amro, a transaction that turned out to be disastrous.
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