Bank Pekao has finalised acquisition of 100% shares in HVB Bank Ukraine for € 84.3m from UniCredito. The transaction was effected with own funds of Bank Pekao.
Our view: The transaction, in our opinion, has been broadly expected by the market, as it is in line with UniCredito's strategy to manage the UCI group’s Ukrainian operations from Bank Pekao, and was previously announced by Bank Pekao. Bank Pekao plans to open some 60 branches and more than 100 point of sales in 2007. Bank Pekao representatives have also not ruled out bank’s expansion through acquisitions and have stated that the bank could spend as much as PLN 1bn on the Ukrainian market. We expect the news to have neutral impact on the stock price today.