UniCredit appoints new Bank Austria CEO amid restructuring
VIENNA (Reuters) - Italian lender UniCredit will replace the head of its Austrian business in March to drive forward the restructuring of the operation's struggling retail business.
Robert Zadrazil, 45, will replace 59-year-old CEO Willibald Cernko as head of the business, which is called UniCredit Bank Austria. Zadrazil has been head of Bank Austria's private banking arm.
"The timing is ideal for a change of generations," said Erich Hampel, Bank Austria's supervisory board head.
"I am convinced that Robert Zadrazil is the right manager to successfully drive forward and to shape the rebuilding of our bank on the basis of the existing concepts and the decisions made."
Zadrazil and Cernko are both Austrians.
UniCredit, Italy's biggest bank by assets, aims to restructure its retail operations in Austria, seeking cost savings of 300 million euros ($325 million) by 2018.
Bank Austria runs most of UniCredit's business in central and eastern Europe, but a contract keeping the business in Vienna runs out in March. Whether those jobs will remain in Austria or be moved to Milan has yet to be decided.
The unit posted a pre-tax loss of 41 million euros in the first nine months of 2014.
(Reporting by Kirsti Knolle; Editing by Keith Weir)
