Shearman & Sterling is advising a consortium of 27 banks led by BofA Merrill Lynch, Mediobanca and UniCredit Corporate & Investment Banking as Joint Global Coordinators in connection with the €7.5 billion rights offering of UniCredit. The transaction is the largest rights offering ever in the financial sector in Italy and the second largest Italian rights offering in the last ten years. With this transaction, the Italian offices of Shearman & Sterling have advised on three of the largest rights offerings ever completed in Italy.

The transaction includes a public offering in Italy pursuant to a prospectus approved by the Italian securities regulator, as well as in Austria, Germany and Poland, where the prospectus has been passported in accordance with the EU Prospectus Directive. The rights and the new shares may also be offered or sold outside the United States to certain institutional investors pursuant to Regulation S under the Securities Act of 1933 and within the United States to qualified institutional buyers (as define in Rule 144A under the Securities Act of 1933) in reliance on Section 4(2) under the Securities Act of 1933. The proceeds of the offering will be used to strengthen the capital structure of the UniCredit Group, as required by the European Banking Authority.

UniCredit, one of the largest banks in Italy, is a leading financial services group, with an established network in 22 countries and representative offices and branches in 28 international markets.

The Shearman & Sterling team includes partners Domenico Fanuele (Rome-Capital Markets), Michael Bosco (Rome-Capital Markets), Stephan Hutter (Frankfurt-Capital Markets), Katja Kaulamo (Frankfurt-Capital Markets), Johannes Frey (Munich-Tax), Barney Reynolds (London-Financial Institutions Advisory & Financial Regulatory), Thomas Donegan (London-Financial Institutions Advisory & Financial Regulatory), Philip Urofsky (Washington, DC-Litigation), Craig Gibian (Washington, DC-Tax); counsel Gregg Rozansky (New York-Financial Institutions Advisory & Financial Regulatory); senior associate Marzio Ciani (Rome-Capital Markets); associates Francesco Liberatori (Rome-Capital Markets), Maria Antonietta Romeo (Rome-Capital Markets), Marco Barbi (Milan-Capital Markets), Andreas Wieland (Frankfurt-Capital Markets), Patricia Pehrsson (Frankfurt-Capital Markets), Simon Weiß (Frankfurt-Capital Markets), Norbert Mückl (Munich-Tax), Axel Korth (Munich-Finance), Mark Dawson (London-Financial Institutions Advisory & Financial Regulatory), Mario Meeks (Washington, DC-Litigation), and Clara Lim (New York-Tax); and trainees Gaetano Petroni (Milan-Capital Markets), Giorgio Ignazzi (Rome-Capital Markets) and Alberto Cozzi (Milan-Capital Markets).