UniCredit ready to leave Russia, in talks with potential buyers for the sale of its division. This is what an article by Bloomberg reports, in the wake of rumors gathered from sources close to the dossier.
The bank led by Andrea Orcel was contacted by financial groups and other companies interested in obtaining a banking license to operate in Russia.
The sources specified that, in addition to the sale, Piazza Gae Aulenti would be considering other optionswith the aim of enhancing its participation in any case.
Bloomberg recalls that, together with the Austrian Raiffeisen Bank International and the French Societe Generale, UniCredit is the European bank with the greatest exposure to Russia. SocGen has cut the bull’s head and, in a context in which sanctions continue to flock against Vladimir Putin, who invaded Ukraine on February 24 last year, decided to sell its Russian unit Rosbank PJSC to the investment company of the richest man in the country, taking on a burden of around € 3 billion.
Raiffeisen, for its part, said it was approached by unsolicited bidders.
The UniCredit stock jumped today to Piazza Affari up to + 11.7% to € 9.45, in the wake of speculations on banking risk and asset management, fueled by rumors about the future of relations between Mediobanca and Generali, to close with an increase of 11.5%, against a market capitalization of 20.6 billion euros.
“This is positive news for the bank, given that the sale would remove one of the main limits it faces, giving an upside to the stock”he told Bloomberg Vincenzo Longo, IG market strategist.
Sources said CEO Andrea Orcel is looking to pursue any transaction he can enhance participationexcluding those agreements that would risk eroding UCG’s capital buffers.
That said, the preliminary nature of the negotiations indicates that the negotiations between UniCredit and potential buyers may or may not go through.
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Quarterly UniCredit confirmed the Russian ballast on the accounts
At the beginning of May, Piazza Gae Aulenti announced its quarterly report: the financial results were defined as “excellent” by Orcel.
However, UniCredit has undoubtedly paid the price of its exposure to Russia. One account was in fact the net profit reported by the credit institution excluding Russia, another is the net profit including the Russia factor.
Excluding Russia, UniCredit closed the first quarter of 2022 with a net profit of € 1.2 billion, up 91.1 percent Q / Q and 48 percent Y / Y. Instead, including Russia, the bank announced that it had reported a net profit of 247 million in the first quarter, down by 72.7% on an annual basis, after accounting, on a prudential basis, write-downs on loans for 1.3 billion almost entirely to Russia. The quarterly report highlighted a cut in Russian participation of 2 billion euros
Confirmed “the commitment to the distribution of at least 16-billion in the three-year period 2021-2024“To the shareholders. Just yesterday, the bank gave in fact the go-ahead for its buyback plan.