The Board of Trustees of the Unicaja Foundation has called a meeting to address the replacement of Manuel Menéndez as CEO of Unicaja, whose continuity with expanded functions should be analyzed these days.
The departure occurs at the end of the transitional period after the merger between Unicaja and Liberbank, in 2021, and after reaching an agreement with Menéndez, according to Efe.
The manager, from Liberbank, had been questioned in the position for some time, especially when an exchange equation was substantiated in the merger in which the shareholders from Unicaja became the majority of the capital.
Just two months ago, at the general shareholders’ meeting on March 30, the block of shareholders from Unicaja regained control of the board of directors. For this, the participation of the Unicaja Banking Foundation, which is the bank’s largest shareholder, was key.
The Unicaja Foundation already gave a notice by abstaining in the approval of the management of the board of directors during the shareholders’ meeting.
Menéndez’s departure occurs in the new stage of the foundation, chaired by José Manuel DomÃnguez. It also comes two years after the merger, when the transitory period expires, which will cause a change in the entity’s governance model.
The departure of Menéndez was foreseeable given the alteration of the distribution of power agreed upon in the operation, which occurred with the help of the former proprietary directors of the Unicaja Foundation and the former president of the Unicaja Foundation, the historic Braulio Medel, who finally had to resign last year urged by strong criticism.
Unicaja Banco, the fifth Spanish financial institution, will thus imminently address the renewal of its leadership and will do so when there is still room for the transfer of power or succession planned before the end of the transitional period after its merger with Liberbank.
