Banks finalize awaited merger

07.11.07 17:30 Filed in: The Prague Post
HVB, Zivnostenská unite under UniCredit brand after two years

It takes some couples a little longer to move in together.
After a two-year honeymoon, Zivnostenská banka and HVB Bank finally merged their
operations under the UniCredit brand Nov. 5, creating the fourth-largest bank in the Czech
Republic.
The consolidation process has been a long time coming. Italy’s UniCredit Bank acquired
Z?ivnostenská banka in 2002 and then added Germany’s Hypovereinsbank (HVB) to its treasure
chest almost two years ago.
The merger creates a bank with total assets worth 260 billion Kc? ($13.9 billion) and 200,000
customers. Some of the bank’s more than 60 branches will be closed or moved to other
locations in order to ensure a more even distribution across the country, but job cuts have not
been announced so far.
“We are convinced that all divisions of the group will benefit significantly from building a strong
brand around our UniCredit Group master brand,” said UniCredit Group CEO Alessandro Profumo
in a statement. “We are a leading European bank — in fact, the first truly European bank, and
we want to be perceived as such.”
In a symbolic gesture, the bank, which has 35 million customers across Europe, announced it
will switch all of its divisions’ Web sites to its unicreditgroup.eu Internet address, emphasizing its
pan-European credentials.
“We have the real ambition to become the No. 1 bank on the Czech corporate banking market
within a number of years,” said Ji
r?í Kunert, UniCredit’s chairman in the Czech Republic.
To meet that goal, UniCredit may eye acquiring its competitors. Further consolidation in the
Czech banking sector should not be ruled out, said Milan Vani?c?ek, an analyst at Atlantik
financ?ní trhy. Previous remarks by UniCredit’s officials have moved in that direction, he said.
Consolidation under the UniCredit name means the end of the
Z?ivnostenská banka brand.
Founded in 1868, it was the first bank financed entirely by local capital. It prospered in pre-war
Czechoslovakia, becoming the nation’s major bank.
Moving to the UniCredit name lets the bank avoid choosing between the HVB and
Z?ivnostenská banka brands, which would likely have alienated people in either company, Vani?c?ek said.
Whereas other UniCredit subsidiaries, such as BankAustria and the German HVB, will retain their
names, Z?ivnostenská banka did not have the leverage within the group to retain its traditional
identity.
“BankAustria is an excellent brand name for an Austrian bank,” BankAustria CEO Erich Hampel
told journalists.
Z?ivnostenská’s name, which reflects the bank’s original focus on craftsmen and
tradesmen, cannot lay claim to the same inclusiveness.