UniCredit Group awarded “Best Western European Bank”

For the first time Euromoney gives two awards to the same bank in Bulgaria

The renowned UK finance magazine Euromoney has named UniCredit Bulbank “Best Bank in Bulgaria 2007” in recognition of its activities and achievements in the past year. In addition to that the respected jury of Euromoney decided to name UniCredit Bulbank also “Best Investment Bank in Bulgaria 2007” for its leading position on the capital markets.

In its Awards for Excellence, Euromoney recognizes the best-performing financial institutions in every significant financial market and product sector, as well as the leading banks in well over 100 countries. These annual awards set the standards for banking and capital market excellence amongst the top ranking financial institutions around the world.

“While thanking Euromoney for this high appraisal, on behalf of the top management I want to express my utmost respect to two most important parties: our dedicated employees and our clients for their trust, support and loyalty. The best performer on the market is not the one who is perfect at a time, but who knows his strengths and weaknesses, constantly builds on the strengths, while working on improving the weaknesses. With the completion of the integration, which required a lot of our resources and some patience and understanding from the clients and employees side, we have one clear goal now: customer satisfaction is the main driver of our business activities”, said Levon Hampartzoumian, CEO and Chairman of the Management Board of UniCredit Bulbank.

The strongest Bulgarian bank UniCredit Bulbank was recognized by Euromoney as the undisputable market leader in the counrty with assets of over BGN 7.5 billion. The magazine notes that about 4000 employees of the bank serve more than one million active individual and corporate customers which benefit from an extensive banking network of about 300 branches. UniCredit Bulbank is the largest and strongest Bulgarian bank, which was created by the successfully completed merger of Bulbank, HVB Bank Biochim and Hebros Bank, members of UniCredit Group.

• UniCredit Bulbank is number one in total loans amounting to 4.5 BGN billion (note: all numbers in the short profile are consolidated numbers for UniCredit Bulbank as of end March 2007)

• Number one in corporate loans: and is the main financing institution for the business in the country with BGN 2.6 billion loans to companies

• The bank holds also the leading positions in deposits to customers (BGN 5.3 billion) and loans to small businesses and individuals (BGN 1.9 billion)

With the successful integration of its entities, UniCredit Bulbank Group became the main provider of a vast diversity of financial services in the country. In addition to the leading banking business through UniCredit Bulbank, the group also includes: the strongest leasing company – UniCredit Leasing; the biggest factoring company UniCredit Factoring; UniCredit Clarima, specialized in direct consumer financing. UniCredit Bulbank also holds the leading number one position in mutual finds assets in Bulgaria through Pioneer Investments. The Pioneer assets under operation of UniCredit Bulbank are over 150 million BGN.

Strongest investment banking in the country

The united bank UniCredit Bulbank was also named “Best Investment Bank in Bulgaria 2007” as the institution holding the number one position on the Bulgarian capital market. According to data from the Bulgarian Stock Exchange the bank has managed about 27% of the stock exchange turnover during the first six months of 2007. The bank through Bulbank, HVB Bank Biochim and Hebros Bank in 2006 were lead managers to numerous bond issues and IPOs, such as:

• Lead manager – Agro Finance capital increase IPO

• Lead manager – Kaolin – IPO

• Lead manager – bond issue – TBI Credit

• Lead manager – IPO – Bulgarian-American Credit Bank

“Best Bank in Western Europe”

While specifically noting the achievements of UniCredit Bulbank, Euromoney named UniCredit Group „Best Bank in Western Europe 2007“. In addition to that the Group became also “Best Bank in Italy“, „Best Bank in Austria“ and „Best Bank in Poland“. Additionally the Group won the titles „Best Investors‘ Service in CEE“ and „Best Equity in Poland“.

With a market capitalization of approximately EUR 70 billion, UniCredit ranks among the top financial groups in Europe, and has currently a presence in core 20 countries, with over 35 million clients and 7,200 branches, approximately 142,000 employees and total assets of approximately EUR 823 billion as of 31 December 2006.

Upon completion of the merger with Capitalia (announced on 20 May 2007), UniCredit will significantly strengthen its presence in Italy, which is one of its key markets alongside Germany and Austria, increasing its market capitalization, on a pro-forma basis, to approximately EUR 90 billion.