The benefits from the Capitalia integration might take some time to be fully realized – after all it was, arguably, the weakest bank in Italy. Still, the bank’s management believes that the potential gains from the restructuring are tremendous. It has every confidence, given its track record in integrating other financial institutions, that it will succeed in this instance too.

Why UniCredit is a victim of its own success

Alessandro Profumo has built his banking group through acquisitions, cementing his reputation as a brilliant dealmaker. The challenge facing UniCredit’s CEO is to get the most out of his empire. At the heart of the group’s strategy is aggressive organic growth in emerging Europe. Sudip Roy reports.

It’s been described elsewhere as a friendly bit of poaching, but officially it’s a strategic partnership between UniCredit and NewSmith Capital Partners. Once it’s all approved, UniCredit will acquire NewSmith Financial Products (NSFP) and become an investor in NewSmith funds, as well as taking a 5% stake in NewSmith Capital Partners. As part of the deal, T J Lim, NSFP’s chief executive officer, will join the executive committee of UniCredit Markets & Investment Banking and also act as co-head of markets with specific responsibility for fixed income and currency, global credit and sales.

Two of the leading banking groups in central and eastern Europe, Austria’s Raiffeisen International and Italy’s UniCredit, have demonstrated that there is continued investor appetite for structured finance assets from the region with the launch of pioneering transactions.

Foreign exchange history is littered with the corpses of institutions that have looked at the industry and then decided to enter the market and become significant players. Now the perceived wisdom is that it is harder than ever for someone new to break into even the top 20, let alone the top five.