UniCredit Bulbank will be the name of the new entity to be created by the merger of Bulgaria's Bulbank, HVB Bank Biochim and Hebros Bank.
The name, along with the banks logo, were unveiled at a November 9 news conference by Levon Hampartzoumian, currently chairperson of the management board and chief executive of Bulbank. Hampartzoumian will hold the same positions in UniCredit Bulbank.
Hampartzoumian said that the UniCredit umbrella brand would be closely linked to the names of banks in Central and Eastern Europe that are members of UniCredit Group.
The re-branding would take place during 2007, he said.
Adopting the umbrella brand UniCredit in the name of the biggest Bulgarian bank shows the clear commitment and support of UniCredit Group to the Bulgarian market. The appreciation of the influential local brand Bulbank represents the recognition on a group level of the strong local know-how for professional and quality servicing of clients, Hampartzoumian said.
The rebranding process in Bulgaria will start immediately after the merger of Bulbank, HVB Bank Biochim and Hebos Bank, which is due in the second quarter of 2007.
UniCredit Bulbank will be the countrys biggest bank. Together, the three banks currently have 3.4 billion euro combined assets and more than 1.1 million individual and corporate clients.
He said that in countries with strong local brands like Bulgaria, UniCredit Group draws on existing brand equity and applies a combination of umbrella brand and local brand. The name of the merged bank in Romania, formed by UniCredit Bank and HVB Bank Tiriac will be UniCredit Tiriac Bank.
In Croatia, the brand name of Zagrebacka banka, the market leader in that country, will be retained. In Turkey, the Yapi Kredi brand has recently been redesigned.
In the Czech Republic, in Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Serbia, Slovakia and Ukraine, the banks will be renamed UniCredit Bank.
A corporate announcement by the bank said that the new names UniCredit Bank or UniCredit, combined with a strong local brand, established a direct link with UniCredit Group, one of the top banks in Europe with 35 million customers. Branding decisions about the names of the banks in Poland, Russia, Slovenia and Bosnia-Herzegovina are yet to be made.
UniCredit Group is one of the largest European banks and is represented in 20 core markets. The group has 7000 branches serving 35 million customers. Within the group, BA-CA is responsible for banking activities in Central and Eastern Europe (excluding Poland).
The banks statement said that with 3000 branches in 17 countries, UniCredit Group operates the largest banking network in the region and offers its customers all financial services as a one-stop-shop - from account maintenance to leasing and from asset management to investment banking services.
On October 30, it was announced that international rating agency Standard&Poor's had raised its long-term counter-party credit rating on Bulbank to BBB+ from BBB. At the same time, the A-2 short-term rating was affirmed. The outlook was stable, the agency said. The rating of Bulbank followed the foreign currency upgrade of the Republic of Bulgaria to BBB+/A-2 from BBB/A-3.
