On the face of it, UniCredit’s purchase of Alpha Bank’s Romania business is primarily about Romania. Romania, indeed, is the most obvious country where UniCredit should be expanding via M&A. It is a relatively high growth and liberal country where UniCredit has a substantial if arguably subscale presence. But the bank has passed by other opportunities to grow via M&A in this market, notably a recent auction of Hungarian group OTP’s Romanian business.
UniCredit is paying €300 million in cash for Alpha’s Romanian operations, with the Greek bank retaining a 9% stake in its subsidiary.
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