Andrea Orcel

Andrea Orcel
Orcel appearing before the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards, 2013
Born	(1963-05-14) May 14, 1963 Rome, Italy
Alma mater	University of Rome INSEAD
Occupation	Investment banker
Years active	1988–present
Spouse	Clara Batalim-Orcel ​ (m. 2009)​
Children	1
Relatives	Riccardo Orcel (brother)

Andrea Orcel (Italian: [anˈdrɛːa orˈtʃɛl]; born May 14, 1963) is an Italian investment banker who most recently served as the president of UBS Investment Bank from November 2014 to September 2018. He was slated to succeed José Antonio Alvarez as chief executive of Spanish bank Banco Santander from September 2018 to January 2019. Since early 2020, Orcel has been linked to taking over as CEO at a variety of financial institutions including starting his own boutique investment bank.

Born in Rome, Italy, Orcel attended the University of Rome, Sapienza, graduating with degrees in economics and commerce. He attended the INSEAD business school in Paris before working at Goldman Sachs and Boston Consulting Group during the late 1980s. In 1992, he was hired by Merrill Lynch & Co. where he spent the succeeding twenty years in their mergers and acquisitions (M&A) department in London. He left Merrill Lynch in 2012 to join Swiss investment bank UBS at the behest of its CEO, Sergio Ermotti. From 2012 to 2018, Orcel led a major corporate restructuring, aggressively downsized the bank, and ramped up M&A activity.

Orcel is a leading in European business and international banking. He has consolidated an enduring legacy of being one of the most successful investment bankers of his generation, widely known as the "Ronaldo of investment banking." He is an outspoken supporter of increased banking regulation, corporate social responsibility, and enhanced market supervision.

Early life and education

Andrea Orcel was born on May 14, 1963 in Rome, Italy. His father ran a small leasing company and his mother worked for the United Nations. Orcel attended the Lycée français Chateaubriand in Rome for secondary school, at his mother's request, so he could learn French in addition to his native Italian. Orcel attended the University of Rome, Sapienza, majoring in economics and commerce. While a university student Orcel reportedly skipped class, as attendance was optional, and went backpacking in South America before returning to take his final exams. He has stated that a vacation to the United States when he was 18 sparked in him a "passion for banking". He graduated summa cum laude with an undergraduate thesis was on hostile takeovers. He went on to attend the INSEAD business school in Fontainebleau, France.

Career

Merrill Lynch

Orcel worked at Merrill Lynch & Co. from 1992 to 2012, a firm that was acquired by Bank of America in 2009 to create Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Upon his graduation, Orcel was hired by American investment bank Goldman Sachs in 1988, aged 25, to work in their fixed income business in London. A year later he left the firm to work as a senior consultant at Boston Consulting Group from 1989 to 1992 in their corporate restructuring and strategy departments in Paris, France. In 1992, he was asked to join Merrill Lynch & Co. in their Financial Institutions Group (FIG) back in London. Orcel orchestrated the $25 billion (€21.2 billion) merger of Italian banking groups, Credito Italiano and UniCredito to form banking conglomerate UniCredit in 1998. UniCredito had originally wanted to go public but the valuation that investment bankers at a rival bank gave it made them "unhappy". Orcel called the bank and offered to explore the possibility of a merger with a comparable company as the initial deal was going through; he brought them to Merrill Lynch a week later. The merger made UniCredit the largest bank in Italy. The following year he personally closed the $13 billion (€11 billion) merger of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya and Argentaria to create BBVA. BBVA became the second largest bank in Spain after the merger. Orcel served as the head of the Global FIG from 2003 to 2007, succeeding Joseph Willit. In 2004, Orcel initiated Spanish bank Santander's acquisition of British subsidiary Abbey National, expanding the banks operations into the United Kingdom in a deal worth $15.56 billion (£13.8 billion). He was tapped by the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) in 2007 to advise on a $55 billion (£49 billion) acquisition of ABN Amro. The deal was orchestrated by Orcel after he brought in Fortis and Santander to execute a three-way consortium bid for ABN Amro. At the time, the bid set a record for the largest merger or acquisition in financial services history. Months later, the oncoming financial crisis surfaced, quickly absorbing the capital buffers of banks all over the world, causing major damage to RBS and forcing the UK to seize control of it.

In July 2008, Orcel rejoined Santander to advise it in its $1.6 billion (€1.45 billion) acquisition of Alliance & Leicester, a British bank and former building society. On January 30, 2009, Santander hired Orcel once more to complete their acquisition of Sovereign Bank, in a deal valued roughly at $1.9 billion (€1.4 billion). His relationship with Santander's executive chairman, Emilio Botín, was reported as being particularly close during this time; Botín sent handwritten thank you notes to Orcel after each deal. Orcel, in turn, felt "emotionally attached" to the bank and the Botín family. Orcel led a team to execute a $8.5 billion (€7.5 billion) rights offering for UniCredit, at the height of the Eurozone crisis in January 2012. Recalled as the "scariest [moment] of his career", he broke through Merrill Lynch's risk limits to secure the deal, drawing wide-spread industry attention. In April 2012, Orcel was tapped by Swiss investment bank UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti to lead their sell side and UK operations. Two of Merrill Lynch's largest corporate clients, UniCredit and Santander, reportedly transferred their business to UBS, following Orcel.

UBS

Orcel worked at the UBS Investment Bank from 2012 to 2018.

Orcel was invited to the group executive board and appointed the co-CEO of the investment banking unit of UBS. In November 2012, he was asked to take ole control of the investment bank. Upon his acceptance of the position, UBS paid Orcel Sfr6.3 million in cash and awarded him Sfr18.5 million in stock options, for a total sign-on bonus of Sfr25 million (£17 million, $26.2 million, or €23 million). In January 2013, following the Libor scandal, Orcel was called before the British Parliament's banking standards commission to explain the company's role in the scandal. Present for nearly three hours of testimony, he expressed regret for the firm's role and stated to commissioner Andrew Tyrie: "we all got probably too arrogant, too self-convinced that things were correct the way they were. I think the industry needs to change." Later that year he was compensated $26 million, in line with a 7% clawback of the company's bonus pool. Although he was hired in a primarily managerial role, he continued to advise some of the firm's higher profile clients and institutional partners. From early 2013 to late 2014 Orcel initiated a corporate restructuring of the investment bank, to "[stop] trying to be the biggest investment bank and [focus] on being the best". With a focus on return-on-investment (ROI), deleveraging, and cost reduction, Orcel increased majority capital positions while diminishing the size of the bank. In May 2015, he was the highest earning executive at UBS Group AG, grossing $8 million in base salary. In February 2016, he orchestrated the merger of Vodafone's and Liberty Global's operations in the Netherlands to create a joint venture in a deal worth $1.1 billon (€1 billion).

From 2012 to 2017 Orcel fired thousands of employees in order to boost profitability, reducing the company's wage requirements by $3 billion. During his tenure he averaged a yearly return-on-equity of 13.4% to 29.2%. In August 2018, a UBS Investment Bank trainee accused one of Orcel's managing directors of drugging and sexually assaulting her at a social gathering in September. Orcel personally invited her to his London office to clarify that the director had been suspended and subsequently resigned. Orcel appeared on Bloomberg Markets later that day explaining a revamped infrastructure and process of handling sexual misconduct at the company, noting it must be "completely eradicated". All throughout the late 2010s, it was speculated that Orcel was to either succeed Ermotti as the chief executive of UBS, or go on to lead either MPS, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, or UniCredit. Orcel was considered to be the "hit-by-the-bus" candidate to lead UBS, an executive who would assume the role of CEO should Ermotti suffer some serious injury.

Orcel was slated to join Banco Santander as its chief executive from September 2018 to January 2019.

In September 2018, Ana Botín announced that Orcel would lead Spanish commercial bank and financial services company Banco Santander as its chief executive officer (CEO), starting early 2019. Orcel formally left UBS on September 30, 2018. His appointment to the chief executive made him the first non-Spanish individual to be nominated for such a high-ranking position at the company. Despite being a traditional mergers and acquisitions banker, Orcel expressed interest in staving off banking digitization instead of acquiring more banks or merging with other large banks.

Industry reaction to the news was mixed with Euromoney stating: “If Santander wanted him, it should have paid for him” while The Economist noted the political backlash Santander would face for hiring Orcel after Spain's recent financial crisis.  On July 3, 2019, Orcel launched a €100 million ($113 million) breach-of-contract lawsuit against Santander. Since February 2020, the lawsuit is ongoing in the local Madrid court system.

Post-Santander

As of 22 January 2019, he is on track to collect his deferred UBS compensation in full by 2026, aged 63. After completing his "gardening leave”, it has been speculated that he would either start his own boutique investment bank, return to UBS, wait until another CEO position opened up, or go into early retirement. With respect to starting his own investment bank, the Investor's Chronicle noted that there could be a potential conflict-of-interest as many of his former UBS colleagues "might decamp to him", competing directly with UBS for deal flow and clients. Orcel has, since early 2020, been linked with taking over as CEO at a variety of banks including Monte dei Paschi (MPS), Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, UniCredit, HSBC, Credit Suisse, and Barclays.

Management style

Orcel's management style has widely been received as valuing hard work and presenteeism, and being performance-driven. He himself reportedly works 18-hour days, waking up around 5:00 AM and working until 11:30 PM to midnight. Orcel has stated in interviews that his favorite book is Angela Duckworth’s Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, whose central thesis is that "the secret to success is not raw talent, but rather a blend of passion and persistence." Orcel has repeatedly stated that, due to the competitive nature of banking, one-in-four (25%) of mergers and acquisition (M&A) bankers do not make it past entry-level positions. He regularly holds annual off-site meetings in international locations away from London. After hosting an off-site meeting in Lisbon in 2013, he held a corporate retreat in Arizona a year later proclaiming: "If you can survive 45 degrees Celsius, rattlesnakes and the desert, we will win".

"Fiat is not the same as Audi, and Audi is not the same as Porsche, and Porsche is not the same as Ferrari. They are all in the auto industry, but they are addressing different markets and, depending on the dynamic in those segments, they are likely to do better or worse. The revenues are not the key determinant in terms of performance — ROE, or profitability, in terms of what is returned to shareholders, is a more significant measure of success."

Orcel, on the modern investment banking market, February 2017

Orcel frequently uses the Italian auto-manufacturer Ferrari to describe his affection for "focused" and "lean" execution of strategies as opposed to bigger, less versatile banks, i.e. as opposed to a Fiat automobile. He similarly uses European football to describe such strategies, referring to UBS as the "Croatia of investment banking" following the 2018 FIFA World Cup final. In June 2016, Orcel led an initiative where UBS bankers were granted two hours of "personal time" every week in order to boost work-life balances. On March 31, 2017, Orcel expressed his affection for shared parental leave and voiced his support for the growing movement in Europe to let fathers and mothers take extended time off of work to be with newly born and young children.

Public image and legacy

For his affection for dealmaking, Orcel has been dubbed the "Ronaldo of investment banking" (in reference to footballer Cristiano Ronaldo) After moving from UBS to Santander in 2019, the New York Times estimated that Orcel was likely "Europe's most famous investment banker." As a function of his dealmaking career, he has been noted as one of "the most successful investment bankers of his generation". From 1988 to 2018, Orcel was widely seen as "[orchestrating] some of the world’s biggest corporate transactions."

Personal life

While at Merrill Lynch and UBS, Orcel worked in their London offices, living in the Kensington district. He is married to Portuguese interior designer Clara Batalim-Orcel with whom he has one daughter. He married Batalim-Orcel in 2009, aged 46, after 16 years of dating. He has a pet husky named Flash.

A known polyglot, he speaks five European languages: Italian, French, English, German, and Spanish, fluently. Orcel's exercise regime includes high intensity running (HIR), weight training, and water skiing.

His younger brother, Riccardo, worked as an investment banker with Orcel at Merrill Lynch & Co. during the late 2000s. He was appointed deputy chief executive of VTB Bank in July 2013 and has occasionally worked with Andrea on mutual deals.

Career statistics

Dealmaking

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

As of market close 8 March 2020

Dealmaking by bank, fiscal year, and market value

Bank	FY	MKT	M&A							IPO / RO		Total Value ($B)
			Entity A	Entity B	Final Entity	Value ($B)	Acquirer	Target	Value ($B)	Issuer	Value ($B)
Merrill Lynch & Co.	1998–99	Bulge Bracket	Credito Italiano	UniCredito	UniCredit	25	–	–	–	–	–	25
	1999–00	Bulge Bracket	Banco Bilbao Vizcaya	Argentaria	BBVA	11	–	–	–	–	–	11
	2004–05	Bulge Bracket	–	–	–	–	Banco Santander	Abbey National	15.56	–	–	15.56
	2007–08	Bulge Bracket	–	–	–	–	Royal Bank of Scotland	ABN Amro	55	–	–	55
		Bulge Bracket	–	–	–	–	Banco Santander	Alliance & Leicester	1.6	–	–	1.6
	2008–09	Bulge Bracket	–	–	–	–	Monte dei Paschi	Banca Antonveneta	10	10% stake of VTB Bank	3.3	13.3
		Bulge Bracket	–	–	–	–	Banco Santander	Sovereign Bank	1.9	–	–	1.9
	Total					36	Total		84.06	Total	3.3	123.39
Bank of America Merrill Lynch	2011-12	Bulge Bracket	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	Rights offering: UniCredit	8.5	8.5
	Total					–	Total		–	Total	8.5	8.5
UBS	2016–17	Bulge Bracket	Vodafone's Dutch operations	Liberty Global's Dutch operations	Joint Venture	1.1	–	–	–	–	–	1.1
	2017–18	Bulge Bracket	–	–	–	–	HNA Group	10% stake in Deutsche Bank	2.8	–	–	2.8
	Total					1.1	Total		–	Total	–	3.9
Career total						37.1			82.16		11.8	135.76

Sign-ons

From	To	Position	Bonus ($M)	Bonus (€M)	Date	References
Merrill Lynch & Co.	Bank of America Merrill Lynch	Executive Chairman of the Investment Bank	$34.0	€29.0	2009
Bank of America Merrill Lynch	UBS	Investment Bank President	$26.2	€23.0	2012
UBS	Banco Santander	Chief Executive Officer (CEO)	$21.3	€18.5	2019

See also

• List of Sapienza University of Rome alumni
• List of INSEAD alumni
• List of former employees of Goldman Sachs