UniCredit negotiated with local bidders, but escalating Western sanctions have slowed those efforts. This has led the bank, according to one source, to expand its search to countries such as China and India, where interested parties could be open to bargain shopping.
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The second source states that the bank deals with potential investors, but did not name them. According to sources, the possibility of an applicant from Russia is still at stake.
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UniCredit CEO Andrea Orcel told analysts in May that sanctions are gradually reducing the chances of an agreement with a Russian bidder. In an effort to speed up the bank’s connection to Russia, the former investment banker used, among other things, an exchange of assets, so that, for example, he exchanged a Russian company’s loan for a Russian bank’s loan to a European borrower.
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However, he said twice that UniCredit could not complete large deals that would reduce its exposure to Russia because the counterparty was hit by sanctions just before the agreement was signed.
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Russian businessman Vladimir Potanin, whose holding Interros bought Russia’s Société Générale division in May, told Interfax that it had rejected a proposal to take over Russia’s UniCredit branch.
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Investors in China, India or Turkey, ie countries that did not support sanctions against Russia, could be interested in assets whose value was reduced by the outflow of Western companies after the start of the war in Ukraine. UniCredit is one of the European banks with the largest connections to Russia – it was the fourteenth largest bank there.
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Orcel recently rejected concerns about the bank’s connection to Russia, saying it no longer posed a threat to UniCredit. In the first quarter, the bank recorded provisions of EUR 1.2 billion (CZK 29.7 billion) to cover future losses.
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Although UniCredit is evaluating all the possibilities for its future business in Russia, including leaving, it will take longer, according to Orcel, given its commitments to employees and customers and its efforts to maintain shareholder value.
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