According to UniCredit, the Russian subsidiary is self-funded and well-protected
(Reuters)-Milan, Feb 24 (Reuters)- As the Ukraine crisis drove shares in Italy's second largest bank plunging on Thursday, UniCredit (CRDI.MI) said its Russian business had very high provisions against any loan losses and was "highly liquid and self-funded."
UniCredit's stock was down 12.7 percent by 1500 GMT, outperforming the European banking sector's overall decrease of 8%. (.SX7P).
With 7.8 billion euros in client loans at the end of last year, UniCredit's Russian affiliate was the country's 12th largest bank.
In mid-2021, UniCredit had total credit exposure to Russia of 14.21 billion euros, which included 6.3 billion euros in loans that were not provided locally.
UniCredit claimed that provisions against prospective losses covered 84 percent of its Russian subsidiary's non-performing liabilities, reassuring investors.
"Our equity in the Russian subsidiary is less than 4% of the group's overall equity, and it's even less if you look at loans and total assets," UniCredit said, adding that it was monitoring the situation closely.
UniCredit withdrew from a proposed transaction in January that would have seen it trade its local arm for a majority stake in Otkritie, a Russian lender that the country's central bank is looking to market after rescuing it in 2017.
UniCredit CEO Andrea Orcel said at the time that geopolitical concerns made it hard to proceed, despite the fact that the bank was typically pleased with its Russian operations, which had always returned enough to cover its local capital costs.