Exclusive-UniCredit turned to CEO Orcel's brother to broker Russia sale

By Valentina Za, Elvira Pollina and John O'Donnell

MILAN/FRANKFURT, June 18 (Reuters) - Riccardo Orcel, a former senior banker at Russian state-backed bank VTB Group and brother of UniCredit CEO Andrea Orcel, helped broker a recent agreement to sell the Italian bank's Russia business.

His previously unreported involvement offers insight into how Italy's second-largest bank secured a deal to exit Russia, drawing on the experience of the former VTB executive who was once one of the best known Western bankers in Moscow. Riccardo Orcel has since left VTB, which is now under Western sanctions.

"UniCredit confirmed 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 bank said in a statement to Reuters. "The transaction announced last month was the successful outcome of that work."

Riccardo Orcel declined to comment. 

In light of the potential conflicts of interest, the appointment of close relatives of senior figures at Italian lenders is governed by a complex set of Bank of Italy rules on related-party transactions, said Stefano Gatti, a finance professor at Milan's Bocconi University.

"Any potential conflict of interest ... is overseen by the regulator and must be carefully assessed by the bank's related-party committee, its board of directors and statutory auditors," he said.

REGULATORY PRESSURE

UniCredit had long been one of the largest Western banks in Russia, maintaining operations following the invasion of Ukraine despite pressure from regulators to exit.

The bank said in May it had struck a non-binding deal to sell parts of its Russian bank to a "well-established private investor" in the United Arab Emirates, retaining only its payments business in Russia.

Little is known about the buyer beyond its UAE base. Dubai has emerged as a key hub for business with Russia since sanctions shut down traditional centres such as Vienna.

Riccardo Orcel, Andrea Orcel's younger brother, was deputy CEO of VTB, Russia's second-largest bank, and vice chairman of its investment banking arm VTB Capital. He left Russia in 2022, joining gold producer Polymetal International and then agricultural trader Quanton Commodities.

State-controlled VTB remains a powerful player in Russia. Its chairman, Andrey Kostin, is a close ally of President Vladimir Putin.

To stem a corporate exodus following its invasion of Ukraine, Russia has tightened exit rules for Western companies and imposed steep discounts on foreign asset sales. Any UniCredit deal would require a presidential decree and central bank approval.

Under regulatory pressure, the Milan-based lender has been scaling back its Russian operations, which in 2022 ranked among the country's top 15 banks.

(Reporting by Valentina Za and Elvira Pollina in Milan and John O'Donnell in Frankfurt. Editing by Elisa Martinuzzi, Tommy Reggiori Wilkes and Mark Potter)