UniCredit is considering selling its retail and small and medium enterprise finance businesses at its central and eastern European unit, Bank Austria, as renewal for the contract keeping the business in Vienna runs out next March; the bank would be looking at a sale price of $900m. The move comes after it emerged that the Austrian government had been forced to pay €1.3bn (£940m) compensation to customers who were hit by an unauthorised credit card charge on their accounts. Unicredit's CEO, Federico Ghizzoni, is in the process of re-working a five year strategic plan, designed to boost revenue and cuts costs.
UniCredit is considering selling its retail and small and medium enterprise finance businesses at its central and eastern European unit, Bank Austria, as renewal for the contract keeping the business in Vienna runs out next March; the bank would be looking at a sale price of $900m. Reports suggest that UniCredit is in talks to sell the unit to US investor, Cerberus Capital Management, which owns Austrian lender, Bawag PSK. Unicredit's CEO, Federico Ghizzoni, is in the process of re-working a five year strategic plan, designed to boost revenue and cuts costs.