UniCredit, Italian finance, investment cos agree to back Italian business in Russia
MOSCOW. Nov 27 (Interfax) - UniCredit S.p.A., the bank's Russian subsidiary and Italian development companies Finest S.p.A. and Simest S.p.A. signed an agreement intended to provide Italian companies working in Russia with consulting and other services and products, UniCredit said in a press release.
The agreement was signed during the Russian-Italian business forum in Trieste, which was attended by Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta and Russian President Vladimir Putin and "will commit the parties, each respecting its own institutional duties and corporate mission, to pool advice, products and services, to the advantage of Italian businesses," UniCredit said.
"Italian businesses, which are increasingly interested in extending their activity into the Russian market, will have new strategic consultancy, institutional and operational services at their disposal thanks to the agreement," UniCredit said.
"The agreement provides for collaboration of UniCredit and its Russian subsidiary ZAO UniCredit Bank Russia with Finest SpA (financial company for the promotion of economic partnership with Eastern European countries) and Simest (company for Italian foreign investment)," it said.
"From initial estimates, with this agreement we believe that in the next 24/36 months we can attract more than 500 Italian businesses interested in investments and structured commercial operations in the country," said Federico Ghizzoni, Chief Executive Officer of UniCredit.
"As of today we have implemented 365 projects for more than 3.3 billion euro, a large part of which consisted of supporting credits for the export of Italian plant and machinery. With this agreement, given the great capacity of the Russian Federation to absorb significant Italian export flows of goods for investment and consumption, and also the opportunities it offers to Italian businesses in terms of production investments, volumes achieved so far can be doubled in the medium term," said Massimo D'Aiuto Chief Executive Officer of Simest.
UniCredit's Russian subsidiary ZAO UniCredit Bank was Russia's eighth largest bank by assets, according to the Interfax-100 ranking at the end of Q3 2013.