Bank Austria, which co-ordinates almost all of UniCredit’s eastern European business, sealed the deal with a consideration that valued USB at more than $2bn, almost doubling what the Italian banking group’s closest rival, Intesa Sanpaolo, offered last year for the Ukrainian lender.
Intesa offered about $1.2bn for USB in February 2005, but the deal collapsed because of legal and regulatory issues.
USB focuses on retail business and is the country’s fifth bank by Tier 1 capital. Founded in 1991, it has €2.6bn in total assets and nearly 500 branches.
The deal is UniCredit’s second big eastern deal in a fortnight – following BA-CA’s $2.18bn acquisition last month of ATF Bank, the third biggest bank in Kazakhstan (see article, page 56) – and marks a further incursion into Ukraine by a western European bank. The transactions follow the group’s gradual control over International Moscow Bank in Russia, and largely complete an acquisition drive through central and eastern Europe.
It is expected that USB will aim to continue growing its retail banking operations, especially its loans, mortgages and credit-card businesses. The bank plans to open more than 100 new branches over the next three to four years.
Greece says yes to Ziraat
The Greek banking authorities have given Turkey’s TC Ziraat Bankasi the green light to establish full banking branches in Greece. Ziraat plans to open branches in Athens and in the province of Western Thrace, where Greece’s 150,000-strong Turkish minority resides.
Deutsche Bank has bought the institutional cross-border custody business of Turkey’s Garanti Bank. The purchase includes assets under custody of more than TL25bn ($19.6bn) and relates to custody and sub-custody services provided by Garanti to non-resident financial institutions, including institutional investors.
HSBC expands
HSBC is to expand its investment banking business in Germany, according to the national newspaper Handelsblatt. The bank plans to advise medium-seized companies and major customers from Germany’s blue-chip DAX index on acquisitions and initial public offerings. It will set up investment banking teams through HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt, of which it owns more than 78%.
The 10-nation Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO) has decided to establish a regional development bank to finance development projects in its member countries, based in Istanbul. Established in 1985, by Iran, Turkey and Pakistan, the ECO includes Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
Both Barclays Capital and a Royal Bank of Scotland-led consortium have increased the cash element of their respective offers to take over ABN AMRO. The consortium, which includes Fortis and Santander, improved its offer after a favourable ruling by a Dutch court on the contentious sale by ABN AMRO of LaSalle to Bank of America. But Barclays faced calls from investors to abandon the deal, because improving its offer would destroy value.
BoNY and Mellon are one
The Bank of New York (BoNY) and Mellon Financial have completed their merger, forming The Bank of New York Mellon, creating the global leader in asset management and securities servicing. The new company has a presence in 37 countries and combined annual revenues of $13bn.
SG grows Japan footprint
Société Générale (SG) has announced plans to set up a Japanese asset management firm to specialise in hedge funds and other sophisticated investments to tap expected growth in demand. It will cater for individual investors and regional banks. SG also aims to increase its sales partnerships with financial institutions in Japan.
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group has agreed to buy a 10% stake in Vietnamese investment banking and securities business Saigon Securities for $88m (see article, page 60).
Emirates Bank International has proposed a merger with the National Bank of Dubai to create Emirates NBD, which will have a market capitalisation of $11bn. The deal is the largest transaction among quoted financial institutions in the Middle East to date. Emirates Bank is the third largest bank in the United Arab Emirates by Tier 1 capital. National Bank of Dubai ranks seventh in the country by the same criteria.
Corrections to Top 1000 World Banks listing
We apologise for the error that resulted in Alliance Bank Malaysia being omitted. On the basis of its March 31, 2006 financial year-end figures, its Tier 1 capital of $406m would have placed Alliance at 741 in the Top 1000 and at 14 in the Malaysia Country listing.
In the UK Country listing, a keying error understated the assets of Bank Saderat. The correct figure should have read $1536m and the percentage change in assets should have read 8.8%. The capital latest assets/ratio should have read 16.08% and the return on assets should have been 2.19%.
Between the production of the Top 1000 disk and the printed version of the Top 1000, a major omission was detected. Its correction resulted in all banks ranked between 137 and 1000 moving down one place.
