Prospectus - Notowania

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RISK FACTORS
As at September 30, 2009, the credit portfolio of the UniCredit Group towards the
naval sector was equal to €15 billion, of which €11 billion concentrated in HVB (of
which €10 billion in the scope of the business unit called “Global Shipping Unit” and
€1 billion mainly relevant to expected exposures, acquisitions/project financing and
corporate loans to the naval sector, and for which approximately 25% of the €11
billion relates to container ship loans). 8 Moreover, UniCredit indirectly owns, through
HVB, an equity holding equal to approximately 8% of the share capital of Deutsche
Schiffsbank, a German bank specialised in loans for this sector, controlled by a
leading German bank with an equity holding equal to 92%. As at 30 September 2009,
the value of the HVB equity holding in Deutsche Schiffsbank was equal to €78.3
million subsequent to an adjustment of €70.9 million registered in the second quarter
of 2009.
The first signs of deterioration in the credit portfolio towards the naval sector were
registered at the end of 2007 subsequent to which, in June 2008, the UniCredit Group
suspended the disbursement of new loans in this sector. Even though the UniCredit
Group deems that such credit portfolio as at the same date is relatively stable, various
segments of this sector (in particular, loans relevant to container ships) are in a
condition of difficulty as at the Date of the Prospectus that, in the future, could further
deteriorate.
During the first nine months of 2009, HVB registered a write down equal to €136
million to the credit portfolio towards the naval sector. A further deterioration to the
present macroeconomic scenario and the market conditions could have a negative
impact on the capacity of the debtors in this sector in order to face refund obligations
and, moreover, this could expose the UniCredit Group to a risk of recording further
write downs to the credit portfolio.
4.1.12 Risk Management
The UniCredit Group banks are subject to typical loan brokerage risks. Within this
sphere, the consequent credit risk is overseen by means of specific policies and
procedures aimed at identifying, monitoring and handling this type of risk, covered by
specific provision-making polices. In detail, the Risk Management Division – which
operates at parent company level and which is also responsible for the “Basel II
Project” – aims to handle the credit, market and operating risk and the other risks
identified as significant for the entire UniCredit Group. On an operational level, the
Risk Management Division provides reporting and handles the monitoring of the
credit risk portfolio with recurrent and specific reports. These have the aim of
analyzing the main components of the credit risk, so as to promptly identify the
performance of the various portfolios subject to this risk and adopt any
countermeasures. The monitoring is carried out on all the customers and in particular
on transactions which presented a high credit risk.
8 The data indicated are deduced from the management system and constructed according to internal management logic
which, therefore, do not match with the tables in the explanatory notes attached to the consolidated condensed financial
statements as at September 30, 2009.