UniCredit, one of Italy’s top two banks, said Wednesday it will seek up to €4bn in state aid from the Italian and Austrian governments. UniCredit, which by some measures is the biggest lender in central and eastern Europe, also reported better-than-expected 2008 annual results, with net profit at just over €4bn, a 38% fall from 2007. The bank wrote down €3.7bn of assets, compared to €2.5bn in 2007. Austria is already in talks about investing in Raiffeisen, the third largest Austrian bank, and Italy has approved a €12bn scheme for the state to buy bonds issued by Italian banks.

This entry was posted by Gwen Robinson on Thursday, March 19th, 2009 at 4:46 and is filed under Capital markets. Tagged with unicredit. Edit this entry.