The improvement in the financial results of UniCredit is due to growth of the revenues and shrinking of the operating costs;

The Group will continue implementing its Strategic Plan for the period 2013-2018, which is oriented towards innovations development and sustainable growth.

UniCredit has exceeded the analyzers' expectations by achieving net profit in the amount of EUR 722 million for the third quarter of the year. The preliminary estimates of financial experts were about EUR 493 million net financial result for the period. Thus, on a nine-month basis, the net profit of the European bank group reached EUR 1.8 billion, which is very close to the estimated EUR 2 billion for the entire 2014. The financial results of UniCredit were approved and announced today at a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Group.

UniCredit, represented in Bulgaria by UniCredit Bulbank, is the biggest Italian bank in terms of size of market capitalization and the only one in the list of systematically important institutions.

"We are pleased with this positive trend, despite a still difficult macroeconomic context. This result comes mostly from managerial actions embedded in our Strategic Plan 2013-2018 focused on innovation and growth. We are one of the most solid European commercial banks, as the outcome of the Comprehensive Assessment confirmed", Federico Ghizzoni, Chief Executive Officer of UniCredit, commented.

In the official statement by UniCredit, it is further said that the positive trend in terms of net profit is due both to increase of the revenues and to better management of the operating costs, which have dropped by more than 1% on an annual basis against the third quarter of 2013. The quality of the assets of the group remains stable too. Positive contribution to the financial results is also the traditionally good performance of the business in Central and Eastern Europe, which is a strategic region for UniCredit. The revenues from the activity in CEE grew by approximately 7% in the last quarter, against the quarter preceding it.

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