The CEO of the nationalized Austrian bank Hypo Alpe Adria, Gottwald Kranebitter, has today resigned from his position, just a month after the bank’s supervisory board chairman Johannes Ditz did the same.
Kranebitter’s resignation coincided with the acknowledgment by Austrian Finance Minister Maria Fekter that Hypo will require a new injection from the Austrian state budget.
Austria has reserved 700 million euros for Hypo’s semi-annual balance sheet, which Fekter believes is sufficient. However, she admitted that the bank will need additional assistance, and the amount will depend on the revenue from the sale of the bank’s branch network in Southeast Europe.
The CEO of Hypo, Gottwald Kranebitter, submitted his resignation today, emphasizing that the public debate about scenarios for the bank’s closure and “undifferentiated speculation about costs” have caused “significant damage and unfortunately disrupted a significant part of the restructuring work from the past three years within a few weeks.”
This has also affected the operations in the healthy parts of the bank, Kranebitter warned in an open letter, adding that it has made it impossible for him to continue performing his duties as CEO.
Kranebitter plans to remain at the bank until the announcement of the business report for the first half of the year, scheduled for mid-August. His term was not set to expire until 2016.
The bank also lost its chairman Johannes Ditz a month ago, who resigned due to disagreements with the restructuring proposal.
