UniCredit confirmed that Riccardo Orcel, formerly a senior banker at Russia's state-backed VTB Group and the brother of UniCredit chief executive Andrea Orcel, played a direct role in arranging the Italian lender's recent agreement to divest parts of its Russian operations. The bank told Reuters that Riccardo Orcel "presented a proposal regarding their Russian business and was appointed as an independent adviser by UniCredit's Board in connection with the execution of that process."
The involvement of Riccardo Orcel - reported here for the first time - sheds light on the mechanics behind how Italy's second-largest bank reached a deal to sell its Russia business, drawing on the experience of a former VTB executive who was once a prominent Western banker in Moscow. UniCredit said the transaction announced last month "was the successful outcome of that work." Riccardo Orcel has since left VTB, which is now subject to Western sanctions. He declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.
UniCredit has been among the largest Western banking presences in Russia and maintained its operations there through the war, despite regulatory pressure to withdraw from the market. In May, the bank disclosed a non-binding agreement to sell elements of its Russian bank to a "well-established private investor" located in the United Arab Emirates, while preserving only its payments business in Russia.
Details about the buyer and the backers remain limited in the information released by UniCredit. The bank said the prospective purchaser is based in the UAE, but did not provide further identifying information. The announcement came amid a shifting landscape in which Dubai has become an important centre for doing business with Russia, the bank noted, as sanctions have closed traditional venues such as Vienna.
UniCredit's statement framed Riccardo Orcel's role as that of an independent adviser appointed by the board to support execution of the sale process. The bank described the announced transaction as the "successful outcome" of that engagement. Beyond that confirmation, and Orcel's decision to decline comment, the public record contains little additional detail on the purchaser or on the financial terms of the agreement.
For now, UniCredit's move leaves the lender retaining a narrower footprint in Russia - focused on payments - while transferring other parts of its business there to the undisclosed UAE-based investor, subject to the progression from non-binding terms to a completed transaction.