Italy’s second-largest bank, UniCredit, plans to refuse to rent property in Milan
Italy’s UniCredit Bank is to spend €1 billion on building a new headquarters. The country’s second-largest financial conglomerate is following the example of other local companies. They prefer to own property rather than rent it.
The project includes two buildings: a campus for employees and the company’s headquarters. The facility will be in Milan, where the bank currently has its head office. However, UniCredit’s employees currently occupy several different buildings.
To make the project possible, the bank bought the Scalo Farini district of Milan for 500 million euros. This area, with a total surface area of 620,000 square metres, includes two old railway stations. According to experts, the reconstruction of the district is one of the most significant projects in the city. UniCredit is the only investor.
In Italy, many companies are moving towards owning their real estate. This trend is due to changes in accounting rules. According to these rules, owning real estate is much more profitable than renting it. The new office will allow the Italian bank to reduce the maintenance costs of its current property by 30%.
The plan is to construct the buildings according to various work models:
– part of the office space has a hybrid design;
– there will be comfortable conditions for a full five-day stay for employees;
– part of the campus will be housing for staff members from other cities.
Bank representatives promise to complete the project by 2030. After that, UniCredit will no longer lease three buildings in Milan’s business centre. This property is currently costing the company €40 million a year. In addition, employees from other offices in the city will move to the new campus.
Business overview
The UniCredit financial conglomerate is the second largest in Italy after Intesa Sanpaolo. It is one of the world’s systemically important banks. UniCredit is present in 49 countries. The largest network is in Central and Eastern Europe.
UniCredit began operations in 1998 following the merger of two banking groups. Its entry into the international market started with the acquisition of the financial business in Poland. In 2002, the bank adopted a new development strategy called S3. It involved the merger of seven competitors into a single structure.
As of 2020, the most prominent investors are:
– BlackRock, with a stake of 5.075%;
– Capital Research and Management with a stake of 5.022%;
– Bank of Norway, through its investment fund, with just over 3%;
– Mubadala Investment manages approximately 2%;
– Delfin holds approximately 1.9%.
The company has several units in Italy, Germany, Austria, Central and Eastern Europe.
