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Braulio Medel, entering the courts of Seville.
The board of directors of Unicaja Bank has approved this Friday an institutional declaration in which it assures the “outright falsehood” of the demonstrations about a possible departure from its headquarters in Malaga.
The financial entity states in the statement that “in any moment Not even the possibility that the change of the registered office to a place outside the municipality of Malaga could be considered, has been raised, discussed or simply commented within the board of directors of Unicaja Banco”.
It has also underlined that, as a national listed financial institution, it seeks to provide “the best response to customers, shareholders and employees”, for which the management of Unicaja Banco and the decisions of its board of directors “are strictly governed by business and professional criteria“.
The board of directors “reaffirms the commitment to the territorial origins of the bank, which are the basis of the current entity, territorial roots that the board of directors defends and promotes” and that has made Unicaja Banco “the reference entity in six autonomous communities,” the statement added.
Likewise, the entity has highlighted that its board of directors “has never taken any decision that was contrary to the objectives of the fusion“.
It also points out that “it is the intention” of the board of directors “to have now and in the future an adequate number of independent directorsalways respecting the right of proportional representation that any shareholder of the institution with the right to exercise it could invoke at any time”.
Therefore, before the three vacancies produced recently, this board has already proposed two new directors for their appointment, which was approved at the general meeting on March 31 and, shortly, it hopes to do the same with respect to the third vacancy produced, recalls the entity.
“Unicaja Banco regrets and rejects the political interference in relation to the entity and its stakeholders, interference that in the past has been shown very negative for the management and even the survival of some financial entities,” the statement underlines.
According to the entity, “any statement or insinuation by a third party, attributing any other intention or purpose on the part of this board of directors other than those stated here, is unfoundedand can only have the object of trying to discredit this council and the institution it represents”.
The critics
ThechairmanJuanma Moreno, said on March 22 that the government he presides over is going to “use all the instruments at its disposal” to prevent the“headquarters” of Unicaja“leave Andalusia and, therefore, Malaga.
Likewise, the central government, through the Protectorate of banking foundations of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, has sent a letter to the Unicaja Foundation transferring “serious doubts” about “the necessary commercial and professional suitability and honorability” of Braulio Medel, president of this institution, “for the performance of its functions”.
In a letter, the Ministry of Vice President Nadia Calviño also questions that Medel is acting “for the exclusive benefit of the Foundation’s interests and carrying out adequate management of its shareholding” in Unicaja Banco. The Foundation is the entity’s largest shareholder with just over 30% of the capital and four seats on its board of directors.