UniCredit announces that Bank Austria Creditanstalt (BA-CA), responsible within the Group for commercial banking in Central and Eastern Europe, has today finalized the acquisition of a 19.77% shareholding of International Moscow Bank (IMB) from VTB Bank (France) SA (previously Banque Commerciale pour l'Europe du Nord-EUROBANK) for a price of US$395 million. BA-CA will also pay VTB Bank (France) SA approximately US$20 million for the capital increase subscribed by VTB in IMB earlier in December.
Pursuant to the agreement signed earlier this year by BA-CA and Bayerische Hypo- und Vereinsbank (HVB), BA-CA is also expected to acquire HVB's 70.26% shareholding of IMB. Completion of this transaction is expected by the end of the first quarter of 2007.
Following completion of the acquisition of the shareholding held by VTB France, UniCredit indirectly holds - through HVB and BA-CA - 90.03% of IMB's total share capital, corresponding to 95.19% of IMB's voting capital. The only other remaining shareholder of IMB is the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
International Moscow Bank was established in October 1989 and was the first international bank in Russia. Originally specializing in corporate banking, IMB has started to expand its activities to include retail banking.
At present IMB is the ninth-largest bank in Russia, with total assets of US$7.7 billion (as at 30 September 2006). The bank currently employs some 1,800 staff and operates 45 branches, although IMB expects to significantly expand its distribution network in the medium term.
With a current market capitalization of approximately €70 billion, ranking among the top financial groups in Europe, UniCredit has a presence in 20 countries worldwide, with over 35 million clients and 7,000 branches, approximately 142 thousand employees and total assets of approximately €822 billion as of 30 September 2006.
Milan, 28 December 2006
Enquiries:
Media Relations:
+39 02 88628212; e-mail: MediaRelations@unicreditgroup.eu
Investor Relations:
+39 02 88628715; e-mail: InvestorRelations@unicreditgroup.eu
Recomend this page
Thank you, we sent your recommendation to the desired recipient.
Sorry, this functionality is not available right now.
Please try with this link. Thank you.
