OREANDA-NEWS. On April 24, 2014, a general meeting of UniCredit Bank Shareholders took place. During the meeting, the shareholders of the Bank approved the Management Board Report on implementation of main activities that had been planned for 2013, and identified the main areas of activity in 2014.

In 2013, the integration of PJSC "Ukrsotsbank" and PJSC "UniCredit Bank" took place.

"The integration of the two subsidiaries of UniCredit Group in Ukraine - is one of the most important events for us in the past year. Now that the transition period is over, we are ready to move forward to new achievements. One of the benefits of integration was diversification of our portfolio: PJSC "UniCredit Bank" was concentrated on work with corporate clients, while PJSC "Ukrsotsbank" was more focused on retail customers", - said Graziano Cameli, the CEO of the bank. According to year results both retail and corporate businesses showed good achievements. The volume of individuals' deposits increased by 2.6% - to 11.8 billion UAH in 2013, SME clients - by 9.2%, to 2.4 billion UAH. Corporate business during the reporting period increased portfolio of perfoming loans by 72% - to UAH 11.1 billion (of which 1.2 billion UAH on account of integration with PJSC "UniCredit Bank").

"Due to the merger of the two Ukrainian banks of the Group we have rationalized our operations, decreased costs thanks to the avoidance of duplication of roles and improved the revenue of the united Bank. Moreover, we continue to evaluate efficiency and profitability of each branch: we relocated branches in promising locations and close the less productive ones", - mentioned UniCredit Bank's CFO Giacomo Volpi.

In total by year end the Bank was represented by 402 branches, 1164 ATMs and 174 self-service areas.

The General Meeting of Shareholders also approved the Bank's financial statements, including its subsidiaries, compiled by the International Financial Reporting Standards with a net loss for the year of 1.17 billion UAH.

"The loss is explained by loan provisions at 2.3 billion UAH, which helps to reinforce the balance sheet of the bank and to reduce the risks in such a volatile environment.", - said Volpi.