A presidential decree allows Italy’s UniCredit to split its Russian bank and sell most of the business to a UAE private investor while keeping payments operations.
President Vladimir Putin has approved the reorganisation of UniCredit’s Russian subsidiary and the sale of a newly created unit, according to a decree published on the Russian government’s website on Monday, Reuters reported.
Deals involving assets owned by investors from countries Moscow calls unfriendly require presidential approval. UniCredit said in May it had a non-binding agreement to sell parts of its Russian bank to a private investor in the United Arab Emirates and to keep its payments business. It planned to split the Russian operation and did not disclose the price.
The bank said then that it expected to close in the first half of 2027 if authorisations were secured. A UniCredit representative had no immediate comment on the decree, Reuters said.
UniCredit has been one of the largest Western banks still operating in Russia, alongside Austria’s Raiffeisen and Hungary’s OTP, despite European pressure to leave after the invasion of Ukraine. Intesa Sanpaolo obtained a similar presidential decree in September 2023 but has not completed an exit.
The decree is an authorisation, not confirmation that the sale has closed. The buyer remains unnamed in the Reuters account.