Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | F | Fair Disclosure Wire

Unicredit Group SPA LISTING ON THE WARSAW STOCK EXCHANGE PRESENTATION - Final.

Publication: Fair Disclosure Wire
Publication Date: 20-DEC-07
Format: Online
Delivery: Immediate Online Access

Article Excerpt
Original Source: FD (FAIR DISCLOSURE) WIRE

ALESSANDRO PROFUMO, CEO, UNICREDIT GROUP SPA: Good, so, many thanks to all of you. Sorry if we are a little bit in a hurry, I know that today is celebration day for sure for us; I hope also for the market. But is also a very tightened schedule, so we have to go through the analysts' presentation just now and also to the question and answer afterwards.

Many thanks for being here. As I said before this is a very important day for us and we want to spend a few time with you going through a presentation of the Group, a presentation shortly on what is our presence here in Poland and in the area.

Clearly we are in a stock exchange and we know that the aim for us is to deliver our shareholders value. We want to deliver shareholders' value thanks to our leadership in the European market. Today UniCredit Group do have a unique European franchise which is well rooted in the wealthiest countries as well as in the fast growing Central Eastern European region and beyond. We have a divisional model that help us significantly in servicing the best the different customer segments providing a major contribution for growth. We always had a very consistent delivery in results and integration since the beginning of our history, and we have a solid track record of value creation for our shareholders.

What is UniCredit Group today? Shortly, today we have very important banking corporation activities in operations in 23 different countries. The international network covers more 50 countries; these are the countries where we are domestic players. We have more than 40 million customers. We are, if we consider also ATF and Ukrsotsbank we are a Group with 10,000 branches, so really a very significant franchise for delivering value to our customers. We are close to 180,000 employees, so also in terms of social responsibility vis-a-vis this huge employee base is quite important.

In terms of size and profitability we are close to EUR29 billion of total revenues, close to EUR7 billion net income, EUR542 billion of customer loan, EUR357 billion of customer deposits. Over EUR1 trillion of terms of total assets being the fifth one in the Eurozone. We have a rating which is A plus stable for Standard & Poor's, double A minus stable for Moody's and A plus positive for Fitch.

What is shortly our track record in terms of integration path? In '93 Credito Italiano has been privatized; has been the first bank in Italy so it has been privatized after 60 years of ownership by the government. In '98 we created UniCredit via the merger with an holding company of different [service] bank, so we became a Group with seven Italian different networks. In '99 we started our diversification, you see a vertical arrow because this go through all the different periods of our life. We started with the investments here in Poland, in 2000 the acquisition of Pioneer in asset management and then we made other different investments in Central Eastern Europe.

In 2001 we made a huge and significant change in terms of organization, divisionalizing the Bank in Italy by the merger of different banks and the spin off of three banks per segment of customer. In 2005 we merged with HVB as being the other great move we made quite recently, and in 2007 we did the merger with Capitalia and the acquisition of ATF and Ukrsotsbank. In terms of results delivery you will see afterwards the number.

Today we are pretty significant in the Eurozone; we are the second largest Bank in the Eurozone and Santander is larger than us. But as you can see we have quite a significant presence, and we are the ninth third largest Bank in terms of market cap worldwide. I think that also this number is quite important because give you an idea of their strength of our Group.

In terms of results delivery, because again it is not important to be big, is important to profit of economy of scale to deliver results for the shareholders. And I would say that this number are showing that we have not been so bad in this period of time.

In '94 when I joined the Bank, the earnings per share were EUR0.02 per share. In 2006 we had EUR0.53 per share, so it is 23% cumulated annual growth so year-on-year which is, I would say, not bad. The cost income ratio when down from 86% to 56%. The total shareholder return has been quite significant because if we compare the total shareholder return of the stock indexes of UniCredit we have outperformed the market by 657 percentage points. So I think that the process is not bad at all.

But also here in Poland we did quite well, so we add a lot of value to our core shareholders which is our aim. In '99 earnings per share were EUR0.25 per share, today we have EUR2.79 in '06. The cost income ratio went down from 69% to 50% and the total shareholder return compared with the Warsaw Stock Exchange index is higher by 325 percentage points. So again I think that both at the Group level and at the local level we have been able to deliver quite significant results.

Our position in the area which stabilize our life is the wealthiest region of the European Union, north of Italy, Bavaria and Austria. As you can see in Italy we...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!



More articles from Fair Disclosure Wire
LeMaitre Vascular Acquires Biomateriali, a Vascular Graft Manufacturer..., December 21, 2007
PG&E Corporation Investor Conference Call to Provide an Update on the ..., December 21, 2007
Event Brief of First Marblehead Corporation Conference Call - Final., December 21, 2007
Event Brief of Q1 2008 Walgreen Pre-Recorded Earnings Call - Final., December 21, 2007
Event Brief of PG&E Corporation Investor Conference Call to Provide an..., December 21, 2007

Looking for additional articles?
Search our database of over 3 million articles.

Looking for more in-depth information on this industry?
Search our complete database of Industry & Market reports by text, subject, publication name or publication date.

About Goliath
Whether you're looking for sales prospects, competitive information, company analysis or best practices in managing your organization, Goliath can help you meet your business needs.

Our extensive business information databases empower business professionals with both the breadth and depth of credible, authoritative information they need to support their business goals. Whether it be strategic planning, sales prospecting, company research or defining management best practices - Goliath is your leading source for accurate information.