UniCredit to Merge Ukrsotsbank and Local Branch

Italian UniCredit Group, which recently completed its acquisition of Ukrsotsbank (USCB: BUY), Ukraine’s 4th largest bank, said it will merge the bank with its local branch, UniCredit Bank Ukraine, according to Gianni Franco Papa, who is responsible for the integration of UniCredit group. Acting CEO Boris Timonkin said that consolidation could take up to two years to complete. Alexander Viktorov: The merger of these two assets, which we anticipated, will be positive for Ukrsotsbank’s operations. In terms of minority shareholders, UniCredit is likely to make an offer to buyout shares (we believe at least USD 0.23 per share, the price paid for the majority stake) or exchange them for shares in the new entity. We maintain our BUY recommendation on Ukrsotsbank and target of USD 0.32.