Reuters beats rivals with news of UniCredit CEO’s departure

Reuters beat major rivals with news that the CEO of Italy’s biggest bank, UniCredit, was unexpectedly going to resign at a special board meeting on Sept 21 after weeks of wrangling over the increasing role of Libyan investors at the bank. Milan reporters tapped their sources late into the evening of Sept 20 and filed an alert quoting two financial sources saying that CEO Alessandro Profumo would step down the next day. The alert hit the screens 20 minutes before Dow Jones managed to catch up. Bloomberg was unsighted. Reuters was also unmatched with a second alert that UniCredit Chairman Dieter Rampl would take over Profumo’s duties, rightly predicting the outcome of the board meeting more than 24 hours before it happened. UniCredit shares fell 2 percent on Tuesday, and 4 percent the following day, as investors worried about instability at the bank