By Margit Feher
BUDAPEST--Italian lender UniCredit S.p.A. (UCG.MI) said Tuesday
that it is not planning to exit Hungary, nor is it interested in
buying the Hungarian arm of Austrian peer Raiffeisen International
AG (RBI.VI).
"UniCredit clearly intends to stay in Hungary," the bank quoted
Gianni Franco Papa, head of UniCredit's central and Eastern
European Division, as saying in a statement.
UniCredit made the comments to deny recent press reports
claiming that it would want to divest its Hungarian operations
should the Hungarian government levy new taxes on the already
heavily taxed sector.
The Hungarian central bank recently said it expects the banking
sector to consolidate in the medium term, with some of the foreign
banks, which dominate the ownership of the sector, leaving the
country. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said that he
would like to see half of the banking sector in Hungarian
hands.
UniCredit closely monitors the Hungarian business environment
"to adapt our business model in time and to secure positive
results," Mr. Papa added.
UniCredit was one of the few Hungarian banks that has generated
profits over the past several years while the banking sector
overall has made losses due to the economic downturn as well as to
the government's numerous bank-sector taxes.
Write to Margit Feher at margit.feher@wsj.com