On December 23, Unicredit Business Integrated Solutions (Ubis) completed the sale to Sia of the payment card processing business in Italy, Germany and Austria for a consideration of 500 million euros in cash.
The transaction will produce for Unicredit a consolidated net profit in 2016 of approximately 440 million euro, with an expected positive impact on the fully loaded CET1 ratio of approximately 12 basis points.
At the same time, the ten-year outsourcing contract signed by Unicredit with Sia and relating to the supply of payment processing services via payment cards becomes operational. This will allow UniCredit to divest a non-core business while maintaining access to a high quality standard of service thanks to the economies of scale Sia can develop.
The sale of the payment card processing business is part of the strategic approach announced by Unicredit on 11 July 2016 and in line with the Transform 2019 plan, presented at the Investor Day on 13 December, which has among the main objectives to strengthen and optimize the bank's capital structure.
In the transaction, PricewaterhouseCoopers Advisory and HSBC assisted as financial advisors, while DLA Piper acted as legal advisor.
