Italian banking major UniCredit has announced that it will sell a stake of about 10% in its Polish subsidiary Bank Pekao in a bid to raise more capital.
The stake sale move is the bank’s second transaction after a private placement of 10% stake in online broker FinecoBank for €328m ($363m).
The lender is expected to raise more than $800m from stake sale in Pekao, based on its closing share price on 12 July.
UniCredit, which currently holds 50.1% stake in Pekao, said the sale will be conducted through an accelerated bookbuilding.
The bank said: “The placement will enable UniCredit to further strengthen its capital position while retaining a controlling shareholding in the company.”
A person familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal that the bank will be able to raise its capital by additional 10 basis points through the sale.
UniCredit has launched an in-depth review of the group's strategy led by new Chief Executive Officer Jean Pierre Mustier to strengthen its capital position and improve profitability.
Mustier said: “"The strategic review will be wide ranging. We will take a diversified approach in terms of the different assets in order to ensure maximum future value creation for all UniCredit stakeholders.
“As always, our first priority is and will always be to deliver UniCredit's products and services solutions to our extensive client franchise and provide access to our unique Western, Eastern and Central European network."
In January, UniCredit agreed to selll its Ukrainian unit Ukrsotsbank to Alfa Group, a Russian investment group.
The sale of Ukrsotsbank was expected to support UniCredit’s plans to cut 18,200 jobs by 2018, Bloomberg reported.
Image: Unicredit tower as seen from Podio Square. Photo courtesy of
Walter J. Rotelmayer/Wikipedia.