The board of directors of Unicaja Foundation, the main shareholder of the bank, which owns 30.2% of the titles, this Thursday i.start the process of replacing its four proprietary directors It is present in the board of directors of the financial institution, as confirmed in this newspaper by sources close to the institution. These four representativesJuan Fraile, Petra Mateos-Aparicio, Teresa Sáez and Manuel Muela) have been the subject of controversy since Unicaja’s merger with Liberbank, which took place last year, has on several occasions been accused on the board of directors of aligning their votes in favor of the so-called Asturian bloc led by the CEO. . Manual Menendezand against the president’s theses, the man from Malaga Manuel Azuaga.
The four executives now looking to change were recommended by Braulio Medel, former head of the Unicaja Foundation, and were re-elected to the position at the bank’s shareholders meeting last March. However, after Medel’s resignation as Foundation president and José Manuel Domínguez’s arrival in June, his status began to be questioned. In fact, Domínguez, at his first press conference as president, was committed to the defense of the Foundation’s interests of the special directors appointed to the bank and to the Unicaja merger protocol and Liberbank (weighted Malaga asset share was 60% and former Asturian bank 40%.
Although this evaluation of the foundation has not been made public, as a result, “loss of confidence” According to which sources are the sources familiar with the situation in recent weeks commenting on these executives? this Attempts to contact managers were also not fruitful.With the exception of Juan Fraile, whose communication has always been fluid and who was also the only person who made his position open to the Foundation.
This Thursday, the board of trustees decided, in this way, to enable the start of this change process. Appointing new representatives to the board of Unicaja Banco and so we face a 2023 where the financial institution faces greater guarantees. will make a decisive change of management with 31 July as the deadline (Until then, on the one hand, chairman Manuel Azuaga must relinquish his executive duties, and on the other hand, the CEO position held by Menéndez will need to be reconsidered by the board).
The idea is that the Foundation will collect in the coming days. possible substitution profiles, decide on an exemption that must take effect before the end of the year. As Efe reported, the Foundation is a assignment committee to evaluate the suitability of possible relocations. This appointment committee consists of Emilio Alba, Ángela Callejón, Pedro Fernández, Antonio Pascual and Ana María SalinasAt Unicaja Banco, he will be responsible for electing new representatives of the Foundation.
Options to create change
As industry sources explained to this paper a few days ago, management change options went through three paths: first, the four current special representatives. will agree to submit his resignation (and only made the Fraile position available for the time being), thus freeing up the way to include substitutions. If this is not the case, the second alternative is for the Foundation to encourage the bank to celebrate at a particular moment after successors have been appointed. extraordinary meeting of shareholders, which will replace the current directors, during which; and third, wait 2023 ordinary meeting of shareholders (in the spring, before the end of April) to raise the issue. In any case, proposed new directors will first need to obtain approval from the European Central Bank, which always carries out an audit process when joining the boards of directors of financial institutions.