UNICREDIT (UCG): UniCredit Group: Bank Austria finalizes the acquisition of a majority stake in Ukrsotsbank - raport 6

Raport bieżący nr 6/2008
Podstawa prawna:

Art. 56 ust. 1 pkt 2 Ustawy o ofercie - informacje bieżące i okresowe

Date: 23 January, 2008

Current Report No. 6/2008

Pursuant to § 36 of the Ordinance of the Minister of Finance of October 19, 2005 on current and periodic information submitted by issuers of securities (Journal of Laws No. 209, Item 1744), UniCredito Italiano S.p.A. ("UCI") hereby provides the English language version of the current report (press release) prepared by UCI, as well as the Polish translation thereof.

PRESS RELEASE

UniCredit Group: Bank Austria finalizes the acquisition of a majority stake in Ukrsotsbank

UniCredit announces that today Bank Austria Creditanstalt AG ("BA-CA"), responsible within the UniCredit Group for commercial banking activities in CEE has finalized the acquisition of 94.2% of the total issued share capital of CJSC Ukrsotsbank ("USB") from a group of investors represented by EastOne, an international investment advisory firm (the "Selling Shareholders").

The purchase price at closing is €1,525 million (or ca. US$2,211 million at current exchange rates), which includes the pro-rata capital increase subscribed by the Selling Shareholders in June 2007. In addition, the final consideration will include a post-closing adjustment to be based on USB’s net asset value at closing.

The acquisition of USB reinforces UniCredit's Group’s operations in Ukraine, one of the fastest growing economies in the region, where the Group already operates through UniCredit Bank Ltd.

Credit Suisse and UniCredit Markets & Investment Banking acted as financial advisors to UniCredit and BA-CA, with Allen&Overy acting as legal advisor.

Milan, 23 January 2008

About USB

USB was established in 1990 and is currently listed on the Ukrainian stock exchange. Historically, USB has concentrated its activities into the corporate and SME sectors. The Bank shifted its activity towards retail banking following the acquisition by a Group of investors now represented by EastOne. At present, the Bank is considering diversifying its activities into asset management, financial consulting and pension funds.

As of 31 December 2007, USB was the 4th largest bank in Ukraine by net customer loans (€3.2 billion, +68% over 2006 at historic Euro exchange rate, representing a market share of 5.8%) and 4th by customer deposits (€1.6 billion, 5.5% market share). At the same date, the Bank had total assets of approximately €4.2 billion.

USB’s business model is primarily oriented towards retail banking (48% of the loan portfolio and 8.6% market share as of 31 December 2007) coupled with a solid presence in the corporate and SME sector, accounting for the residual 36% and 16% of the loan portfolio respectively. As of December 2007, USB’s network consisted of 508 branches.

About UniCredit

Ranking among the top financial groups in Europe in terms of market capitalization (approx. €70 billion at current market price), UniCredit has a presence in 23 countries, with over 40 million clients and 9,000 branches, approximately 170,000 employees and total assets of approximately €1,018 billion (pro-forma) as at 30 June 2007.

In the CEE region, UniCredit operates the largest international banking network with over 3,700 branches and outlets, where more than 76,000 employees serve approximately 27 million customers.

The Group operates in the following countries: Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Tajikistan, Turkey and Ukraine.

Enquiries:

Media Relations:

+39 02 88622612; e-mail: MediaRelations@unicreditgroup.eu

Investor Relations:

+39 02 88628715; e-mail: InvestorRelations@unicreditgroup.eu
Elżbieta Krakowiak - Attorney of UniCredit