Málaga, (EFE).- The majority of the shareholders of Unicaja Banco, led by the Unicaja Banking Foundation, have voted at the meeting held this Thursday against the ratification of María Teresa Costa and Isidoro Unda as independent directors, a decision that is key in the struggle for control of the board of the entity, which now leans towards the so-called bloc from Malaga.
With an attendance ‘quorum’ of 86%, the Unicaja Banco meeting has concluded with the approval of all the items on the agenda with the exception of the fifth, referring to the ratification of these two directors, to whom the Unicaja Foundation, the main shareholder of the entity, with 30.2% of the share capital, did not consider themselves completely independent.
Costa, former president of the former National Energy Commission (CNE), and Unda, former president of Crédito y Caución, have ties to the CEO of Unicaja Banco Manuel Menéndez, through the energy company EDP Spain, of which he is president not executive. Both will have to leave the council of which they were part since 2022.
Coup of authority of the Andalusian bloc
The decision not to ratify these two directors, which has also had the support of the unions, represents a victory for the Malaga bloc of Unicaja Banco, represented by the Unicaja Foundation and other shareholders such as the family that owns the Mayoral textile group or the businessman Tomás Olivo, close to the president of the bank, Manuel Azuaga.
The Asturian side is made up of directors related to Manuel Menéndez, from Liberbank, and the former president of the Unicaja Foundation Braulio Medel.
The next departure of Costa and Unda from the board of Unicaja Banco will take place in parallel to the appointment, approved at today’s meeting, of four new proprietary directors at the proposal of the Unicaja Foundation: Juan Antonio Izaguirre, José Ramón Sánchez, Natalia Sánchez and Miguel Gonzalez.
They will replace Petra Mateos-Aparicio, Manuel Muela, Teresa Sáez and Juan Fraile, about whom the Unicaja Foundation, chaired by José Manuel Domínguez, had lost confidence by coming from the stage of Braulio Medel, who resigned after a questioned and controversial mandate .
In this way, the Malaga bloc will retake control of the entity by adding eight of the fifteen members of the board of directors. The independent María Garaña announced last January her resignation as director and the appointment of her replacement is also pending.
All this occurs at a key moment for the bank, which before August must modify its governance model, so that the president, a position currently held by Manuel Azuaga, will lose executive functions and it will be decided whether the CEO, Manuel Menéndez, remains in the position with the most power or another chief executive is elected on the board of Unicaja Banco.
The Unicaja Foundation justifies its decision
The Unicaja Banking Foundation, which has also abstained from approving the management of the board of directors in 2022, has taken advantage of the shareholders’ meeting to justify its position, which is aimed, it has said, at achieving “sound and prudent management”. of the financial institution.
Through a representative, the Foundation has stated that it must ensure that Unicaja Banco “maintains solid corporate governance procedures” and that its financial activity is “at the service of the real economy and adapts to the traditional banking business model commercial”.
To this end, it is “fundamental”, he said, that “an adequate working environment” be maintained based on respect for the rights of workers, to the extent that they are “an essential asset for the success of the bank’s business project”.
“The Foundation, as successor to Unicaja, is called upon to preserve, as a strict and rigorous executor, the great historical legacy accumulated over almost 140 years,” he underlined.
Regarding the next change in the governance model that the entity must undertake, the Unicaja Foundation has indicated that “in the exercise of its rights as a shareholder with a vocation for stability and permanence, it will contribute to making the corresponding decisions that are aimed at improving the model business and governance of Unicaja Banco”.
All this, he stressed, for the sake of “the healthy and prudent management of the entity, the sole objective of the decisions adopted” by the Unicaja Banking Foundation.
Neither Manuel Azuaga nor Manuel Menéndez have responded to the Foundation’s considerations nor have they mentioned the government crisis that the entity has been experiencing for some time.
labor improvements
Various union representatives of Unicaja Banco have also taken the floor at the meeting, who have strongly charged against the labor policy of the current management and its “authoritarian” way of doing things.
CCOO has demanded labor and salary improvements for the entire workforce and has denounced the “toxic labor climate” that the entity is experiencing after the merger with Liberbank.
The Corriente Sindical de Izquierda union, the majority in the Asturias offices, has warned that after the integration Unicaja has adopted “the ways of doing” of Liberbank, a model “absolutely disconnected from reality”, which has proven ineffective and ” disrespectful” with workers and customers.
Given the avalanche of criticism for the working conditions denounced by the unions, who have also protested at the gates of the board, Manuel Azuaga has said that any merger process, when it is also linked to a restructuring of offices and employees, produces “dysfunctions of operation”, but that “measures are being taken” to solve it “and they will continue to be taken”.
Azuaga hopes that labor relations at Unicaja Banco “will unfold in a climate of dialogue, consensus and agreements” and recalls that the negotiating table is open, so he invites all the issues raised at the meeting to be brought to this body “to that can be adequately addressed. EFE