After the groundbreaking 2009-2012 sponsorship agreement, UniCredit is proud to announce theextension of the contract for the UEFA Champions League to the cycle 2012 – 2015. With the renewal of this agreement, UniCredit will continue its association with UEFA Champions League, Europe’s most prestigious club football tournament.

The UEFA Champions League sponsorship has proved a powerful driver towards greater brand awareness. The extension of the sponsorship will allow UniCredit to build on the results achieved so far in supporting the master brand strategy, fostering the European image of the bank, and strengthening local brands and business via this prestigious platform. Furthermore, the sponsorship will support the rebranding processes in Poland and Ukraine in the near future.“The renewal of the sponsorship for three more years is a clear confirmation of our belief in being a European group with a strong presence in our core markets including CEE, as we aim to continue to leverage on the UEFA Champions League sponsorship to increase our brand awareness in the region”, underlines Federico Ghizzoni, Chief Executive Officer of UniCredit. “Clearly, we chose a European sponsorship platform that perfectly fits with our positioning as a leading European bank.”

“We are extremely pleased that UniCredit has chosen to extend its agreement with UEFA and with the UEFA Champions League for another three-year cycle. Their renewed support and contribution, particularly in the promotion of the competition in Eastern Europe, is highly valued. As one of the key activities, the UEFA Champions League Trophy Tour presented by UniCredit has created unforgettable and exciting experiences for football fans in those territories. The UEFA Champions League continues to be a very valuable platform for our sponsor partners and we are confident that it will continue to provide UniCredit with excellent opportunities to connect with fans across Europe and further strengthen their association with the competition”. David Taylor, CEO UEFA Events S.A.

Results of the partnership so far

This season, the UEFA Champions League sponsorship has again proved its power for UniCredit to pursue the stated goals such as supporting the master brand strategy, fostering a European image, strengthening local brands and business via this prestigious platform.

“The concrete results of the last two seasons document that we as a top European bank have chosen a successful path within the football community”, states Federico Ghizzoni, Chief Executive Officer of UniCredit. “Thanks to the comprehensive communication and activation measures and the strong commitment of the group’s employees, the success of this sponsorship could be further pushed.”

The visibility for UniCredit has been extremely high and the logo has been associated with UEFA Champions League initiatives trough ~ 5 bn contacts in the last two seasons.

In markets with consistent activation measures the brand awareness increased significantly. Overall the aided brand awareness on group level increased by 5 percentage points between November 2009 and November 2010.

The results of brand equity studies show that since the beginning of the sponsorship UniCredit improved its image dimensions as well as propensity to buy. Where the UEFA Champions League sponsorship has been activated UniCredit generated effective sales conversion and leads.

The UEFA Champions League Trophy Tour presented by UniCredit has been particularly instrumental in driving brand awareness. Over the past two years ten countries and 49 cities were visited, resulting in a high response in non-financial media and generating great potential for media. Throughout attractive road-show event series UniCredit welcomed in total 228,500 visitors and achieved an average return on investment of 374.5% per Trophy Tour.

Trophy Tour 2011

Building on this positive experience, this year’s UEFA Champions League Trophy Tour presented by UniCredit is scheduled to visit three more countries and five major cities in Europe. So the 2011 route will include Saint Petersburg (September 16 – 18) and Moscow (September 23 – 25) in Russia, Kiev (September 30 – October 02) and Donetsk (October 07 – 09) in Ukraine and finally Belgrade (October 14 – 16) in Serbia.

Sustainability to underline the commitment

This year, UniCredit has also given a more pronounced social dimension to the sponsorship. Through the online campaign “Make a kid smile” – launched in time to take advantage of the excitement generated around the UEFA Champions League Final – and its internal initiative the group has enabled employees and the public to support football schools and social projects in different countries where the group is present.

In particular, as a result of the campaign “Make a kid smile”, UniCredit Foundation, the corporate philanthropy body of UniCredit, has contributed to “Open Fun Football Schools”, a project that promotes the values of fairness, team spirit and mutual respect among children living in divided societies. With this donation, UniCredit will actively support “Open Fun Football Schools” in Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia and Ukraine by providing equipment and will also promote the project in new countries like Bulgaria, Slovenia and Slovakia in 2011.

According to Maurizio Carrara, Chairman of UniCredit Foundation, “this initiative demonstrates how sport and social commitment can go together. We thank all fans, who, through uploading their picture, made us donate to this valuable and far reaching project”.

The “Make a kid smile” campaign has been endorsed by Luís Figo, the Official UniCredit Ambassador for the UEFA Champions League. “My personal experiences within my social commitment have proved that there is much more that counts in life than football. So, it was a pleasure for me to follow this initiative, especially since the benefitted project uses football as a vehicle to promote tolerance, respect and fairness.”

About UniCredit

UniCredit is a major international financial institution with strong roots in 22 European countries and an overall international network presence in approximately 50 markets, over 9,600 branches and 162,000 employees as of 31 December 2010.

In the CEE region, UniCredit operates the largest international banking network with nearly 3,900 branches.

The Group operates in the following countries: Austria, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey and Ukraine.

About UniCredit Foundation

UniCredit Foundation is a corporate foundation established in 2003 to contribute to the development of solidarity and philanthropy in the communities and territories in which it operates, primarily in the geographic areas in which UniCredit is present (in 22 countries throughout Europe and Central Asia). By transferring financial resources and management skills commonly used in the corporate sphere, UniCredit Foundation is supporting major projects in order to foster positive social impact and innovation, which are carried out by local non-profit organizations.

More information for media:

UniCredit Bulbank, Identity & Communications Department

Viktoria Blajeva, Phone: + 359 2 9264 993, wjlj/ebwjepwbAvojdsfejuhspvq/ch

Ekaterina Ancheva, Phone: + 359 2 9264 963, еlbufsjob/bodifwbAvojdsfejuhspvq/ch

More information for clients:

UniCredit Bulbank, Call Centre Phone: 0700 1 84 84