Italian financial group UniCredit (UCG) is pooling its real estate activities in a central unit which will be responsible for the group-wide real estate strategy. The new organisation will coordinate the management of more than 10,000 Unicredit buildings across 23 countries.
Italian financial group UniCredit (UCG) is pooling its real estate activities in a central unit which will be responsible for the group-wide real estate strategy. The new organisation will coordinate the management of more than 10,000 Unicredit buildings across 23 countries.
The new entity will monitor all the group's real estate activities and therefore be organised in four units: Group Portfolio & Asset Management, Group Project Management, Group Operating Activities Management and Group Transaction Management. Its major tasks will include the active management of Unicredit's owned and rented property portfolio, the supervision of cost-saving initiatives as well as the coordination of large real estate disposal and acquisitions.
Christian Kühni, 53, will take charge of the new UCG unit on 1 August 2008. Kühni joined HypoVereinsbank two years ago and has headed the German Corporate Logistic & Facility Management activities since then. A dual Swiss/Canadian citizen, Kühni joined UniCredit Group from Sanofi-aventis. He previously worked for ABB, Royal Trust of Canada, BP, UBS and Credit Suisse in various real estate and finance positions in several countries in Europe and North America. Kühni will report directly to Matthias Sohler, deputy COO of UCG and, in this phase, will continue in his function as CEO of HVB Immobilien.
