By Jesús Aguado and Emma Pinedo
MADRID (Reuters) – A Madrid court has ordered Santander to pay Italian banker Andrea Orcel 67.8 million euros ($76.42 million) over a withdrawn offer to make him CEO.
The court said the job offer letter to Orcel was a binding contract and Santander will have to pay him the compensation.
News website Vozpopuli earlier reported Orcel would be entitled to claim 68 million euros ($76.70 million).
The court said that Orcel was entitled to receive compensation for a sign-in bonus, a buyout clause, two years salary and moral damage but could not give the total amount, confirming a Reuters report.
Santander was not immediately available for a comment, while Orcel’s legal team declined to comment.
Orcel sued Spain’s largest bank after it withdrew the job offer almost three years ago in a dispute over his pay package.
The case revolves around whether a four-page offer letter to Orcel in September 2018 was a binding contract or a non-binding initial offer, as Santander Chairman Ana Botin asserted in the first session of the Madrid court hearing in May.
In January 2019, Santander said the bank could not meet Orcel’s pay demands, which included covering up to 35 million euros ($41 million) of a 55 million euros compensation package he was due to receive in future years from UBS.
($1 = 0.8866 euros)
(Reporting by Jesús Aguado and Emma Pinedo; editing by Rachel Armstrong and Jane Merriman)
