Annual report 2004 (PDF, 4141 kB) - Unicredit Bank

Schedule to the Consolidated Financial Statements
Year Ended 31 December 2004
INTRODUCTION
Živnostenská banka was founded in 1868 for the purpose of financing small and mediumsized
Czech companies. It was the first bank in the Austro-Hungarian Empire with only Czech
capital. It was nationalized in 1945 as were the other banks in the Czech Republic.
Živnostenská banka existed as a legal entity during the years 1950 – 1956 but its activities
were very limited. Later Živnostenská banka started to provide special services to individuals
which related to their income denominated in foreign currencies.
Živnostenská banka, a.s. (hereinafter referred to as “the Bank”) was incorporated on 1 March
1992 as the legal successor of the original Živnostenská banka. The Bank has its registered
office at Praha 1, Na Příkopě 858/20, and is organised as eight regional branches. The
representative office in Bratislava, Slovak Republic was closed on 30 June 2003 due to
restructuring of Unicredito Italiano SpA (hereinafter referred to as “UCI”) activities
in Slovakia.
The Bank’s operations primarily consist of:
• providing Czech and foreign currency loans and guarantees;
• accepting and placing deposits in Czech and foreign currency;
• accepting current and term accounts denominated in Czech and foreign currency;
• rendering of general banking services through a network of branches and agencies;
• executing foreign exchange transactions in inter-bank money market;
• providing foreign trade finance and related banking services;
• financial instruments trading and portfolio management.
These consolidated financial statements include the Bank’s subsidiaries involved in fund
and other assets management (ŽB – Trust, investiční společnost, a.s. and ŽB – Asset
Management, a.s.), hereby referred to together as “the Group”. The Bank sold its interest in
ŽB – Asset Management, a.s. to a related party, Pioneer Global Asset Management SpA
(“PGAM”), with the effect from 30 December 2003 and subsequent to the year-end,
on 7 January 2004, the interest in ŽB – Trust, investiční společnost, a.s. was also sold
to PGAM. These consolidated financial statements include the Bank’s dormant subsidiary
Zivnostenska Finance, B.V., but it is not consolidated due to immateriality.
Since 11 February 2003 the Bank has been controlled by UCI. Until then the Bank had been
controlled by Bankgesellschaft Berlin AG (hereinafter referred to as “BGB”).
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