Brussels, 13/06/2005 (Agence Europe) - The boards of governors of the Italian bank Unicredito and the German bank Hypovereinsbank (HVB) on Sunday approved plans by both establishments to merge. The operation will take the form of a public exchange offering on the part of the Italian bank for its German partner to the tune of five new Unicredito shares for each HVB share, valuing Unicredito at 15.4 billion EUR. The economic press describes this merger as the largest cross-border banking merger ever seen in Europe. It will give rise to the fourth largest bank in the euro zone and the ninth largest in Europe. It will have a total of 41 billion EUR in market capitalisation, a total balance-sheet of 733 billion EUR, employ some 127,000 and manage 28 million clients by a 7, 000 outlets in 19 countries, with a strong presence in Italy, Germany and Austria. The European Commission has made no comment at this stage. Jonathan Todd, spokesperson to Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes, states that the Commission has not yet received notification of the operation and that it will reserve judgment until the examination procedure has begun ("wait and see", he said). Mr Todd pointed out that like the two other banking operations currently under investigation (ABN Amro/Antonveneta and BNL/BBVA), the Commission's analysis will be based on maintaining effective competition in the market in question. "The Commission will see whether they have similar activities on the same territory (...). We have to see if effective competition remains on the EU and EEA markets, which is of concern to us", Mr Todd added, also stating that the Commission was still looking at information received by the Bank of Italy on the ABN Amro/Antonveneta and BNL/BBVA operations (EUROPE 8955).