While Unicredit Chief Executive Officer A. Orcel has the immediate goal of integrating Commerzbank into the Italian bank, yesterday he spoke to analysts and used Alpha Bank as a model for product expansion, which will also be extended to the German bank. Specifically, as he noted, the Alpha Bank one markets platform now manages 2.2 billion euros. These are Unicredit mutual funds distributed exclusively to private banking clients in Greece, in cooperation with international investment houses. As the Unicredit CEO added, the trade finance sector has been further reinforced through the cooperation with the Greek bank, since the volume of business has doubled since the partnership began, while international guarantee letters have quadrupled. In fact, Mr. Orcel plans to apply the same service model (financings, payments, investments) to Commerzbank as well.
Specifically, as he said, "Once we acquire control of Commerzbank, we will be able to expand this comprehensive range of services to its clients as well, helping both our own clients and Commerzbank's clients in the small and medium-sized enterprise sector (Mittelstand) to grow beyond national borders, leveraging top-tier trade finance solutions and an extensive network of banks, branches, and partner banks (correspondent banks)." Based on this design, there is a benefit for Alpha Bank. German small and medium-sized enterprises are set to gain access to Greece and Cyprus as well, where Alpha Bank and Astro Bank can offer banking services and trade finance through Flexfin. Mr. Orcel clarified to analysts that Unicredit is a European bank supporting European businesses, and cooperates with international companies only when they have investments in Europe. Based on this perspective, Unicredit grows only in Italy and Europe and is not interested in the US or Asia.
Access to 13 countries through Unicredit's network for more than 100 businesses
In particular, up to today, according to Alpha Bank data, over 30 percent of bilateral Greek commercial transactions concern the 13 countries where Unicredit has a presence. In this way, more than 100 Greek businesses use Unicredit in order to support their needs in payments, foreign exchange, factoring, and transaction clearing. A large part of the cooperation between the Greek bank, however, also consists of international syndicated loans or bonds in which Alpha Bank and Axia Finance have participated. It is estimated that syndicated loans have exceeded 250 million euros, while the Greek investment bank has participated in bond issuances for Unicredit clients. The benefits for the Greek bank are the higher commissions that syndicated loans usually carry, as well as expertise, since many of these concern, for example, structured transactions for financing renewable energy sources or storage projects. Beyond access for businesses, the Unicredit CEO, referring to the insurance company Generali, said that the Italian bank shares a presence in Romania and Poland, and this will likely be expanded to Greece as well. Regarding investment products, the Greek bank is preparing products with Greek risk for Unicredit subsidiaries in Europe through Alpha Trust and Alpha Bank Asset Management.
Dimitris Pafilas
dpafilas@yahoo.com
www.bankingnews.gr
Readers’ Comments