UniCredit CAIB AG, a fully-owned subsidiary of Bank Austria AG, has received an A+ long-term and an A-1 short-term rating from Standard & Poors (S&P).
At the same time its outlook was ranked as stable. The companys rating thus matches the current S&P rating for UniCredit and Bank Austria.
According to S&P the rating reflects the role of UniCredit CAIB and its parent company Bank Austria as core companies in UniCredit Group for the development of the banking business inthe rapidly growing markets of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE).
Pooling the investment banking activities to boost its competitiveness, Bank Austria began last year to pool its entire investment banking business under the UniCredit CAIB umbrella, initially pooling the former investmentbanking activities in London, Vienna, Central and Eastern Europe and at the Russianbrokerage Aton.
Consequently, UniCredit CAIB is now already responsible for institutional equity business, research, M&A advisory, equity capital markets and merchant banking as well as playing the role of management company for the direct subsidiaries in the CEE region.
“Pooling these activities is an important milestone for the UniCredit Group to furtherstrengthen its leading position in the capital market sector in the emerging European markets,” says Stefan Ermisch, COO of the UniCredit Markets & Investment Banking Division and the person in charge of the integration of the investment banking activities ofUniCredit Group. Ermisch is also deputy chairman of the supervisory board of UniCredit CAIB.
It is planned to integrate all trading activities of Bank Austria into UniCredit CAIB by the end of 2008. In the future, Bank Austrias capital markets trading activities will be handled exclusively through UniCredit CAIB.
“By bundling all our forces under one roof we will ensure that we can provide our customers with the entire range of services of our trading and investment banking activities in an even more effective fashion,” adds Ermisch.