ROME (dpa-AFX) - Italian banking giant UniCredit (UNCFF.PK) plans to cut up to 12,000 jobs, and propose asset sales including its Austrian retail operations as management seek to avoid a capital increase, the Financial Times reported citing people familiar with the matter.
The plan, which will be presented alongside third-quarter results on Wednesday, is a radical attempt by chief executive Federico Ghizzoni to boost profits and capital at Italy's only systemically important financial institution amid mounting pressure from investors and regulators, the report said.
According to the reports, an informal move to sell its lossmaking Austrian business over the summer sparked no interest. The company is now in talks to sell the Austrian retail operations to Vienna-based bank Bawag although a deal remains far from certain.
Job cuts, which on top of 5,000 already announced would account for about 7 per cent of UniCredit's workforce, will reportedly come from Italy and Austria but have a focus on its German back office and investment bank. The focus of the plan is to cut cost-to-income ratio of about 80 per cent in Germany and Austria.
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