Sale of assets in Russia will cost UniCredit €3 bln. The bank has found a buyer in the UAE

Italian banking group UniCredit has reached a preliminary agreement to sell a stake in its Russian business to a private investor from the UAE in 2027, the financial organization said in a statement. Thus UniCredit accelerates the winding down of its presence in the country. The amount of the deal, as well as what assets will be transferred to the buyer, the group does not disclose.

UniCredit's Russian subsidiary UniCredit will spin off some of its assets into a separate structure, which the bank will retain, according to the terms of the agreement. The remaining operations will be sold to "a reputable private investor from the UAE with long-standing ties to the local institutional and business community", the group said in a press release.

"This agreement accelerates the reorientation of UniCredit's operations in Russia, which will focus primarily on international payments (primarily in euros and US dollars) for Western and Russian corporate clients that are not under sanctions," the bank explains.

The Italian group said the transaction would result in a one-off loss of between €3 billion and €3.3 billion, but would have a positive impact on capital adequacy ratios. The bank added that the transaction will not affect dividend payments and will not hinder the achievement of profit targets set by the 2028-2030 strategy.

UniCredit clarified that the signed agreement is non-binding, and the parties will continue to work together to finalize the structure of the transaction. Its completion will depend on the signing of binding documentation, implementation of the asset allocation procedure and regulatory approvals.

Bank employees "will benefit from an accelerated transition" that will create two banks with clear strategies and goals, the statement emphasized.

UniCredit remains one of the few European banks with significant assets in Russia, The Wall Street Journal notes. The planned sale of part of the business to an investor from the UAE is the most significant step of the credit organization on the way to leaving the country. It has been looking for exit options for more than four years, since the military conflict in Ukraine began, Bloomberg recalls. UniCredit CEO Andrea Orchel has previously said that he has no intention to give up Russian assets without getting a "fair price," the agency writes.

The group was under pressure from the European Central Bank to leave the market. In addition, the presence of the Russian business was an obstacle in the failed takeover attempt of Italian competitor Banco BPM SpA a year earlier.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor