In Romania, the new UniCredit Group is represented via UniCredit Romania, HVB Bank Romania and Banca Tiriac, which belong to the new UniCredit Group from now on. Combined total assets of the three banks would be EUR of around EUR 3 billion, thus making UniCredit Group one of the most important players on the Romanian banking market with an especially strong position in the field of corporate and retail banking. Together, the three banks serve approximately 800,000 customers via 121 branches. In a first step, the three banks will operate in parallel.
HVB Bank Romania and Banca Tiriac continue to be subsidiaries of Vienna-based Bank Austria Creditanstalt (BA-CA), which now is also part of the new UniCredit Group. It is planned to make Vienna the new headquarters for the CEE Division of the new UniCredit Group. The combined CEE network would then rise from some 1,000 branches to about 2,800, while total assets would increase from EUR 36.5 billion to roughly EUR 80 billion. The number of employees would more than double, from 19,000 to some 50,000. In addition, the UniCredit Groupts CEE Division will be responsible for the Group’s business in Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the Baltics, thus serving clients in 17 countries.
The CEE Division of the new UniCredit Group will be under responsibility of Erich Hampel, BA-CA’s Chairman of the Managing Board. As planned, Erich Hampel was appointed to the Management Committee of the expanded UniCredit Group in the meeting of UniCredit’s Board of Directors on 18 November 2005.
The start of the new UniCredit Group will be accompanied by a print media campaign throughout Europe. The campaign will start on 24 November and run until 12 December 2005.
