UK‘s Parvus hikes UniCredit stake to become Italian bank’s No. 2 investor

　　div classBodysc17zpet90 cdBBJodivpMILAN Reuters – Londonbased fund Parvus Asset Management has increased its holding in UniCredit to 5, becoming the secondbiggest investor in the Italian bank, data showed on Monday.p

　　pA shareholder in midsized Italian bank UBI at the time of the Intesa Sanpaolo takeover, Parvus has long been an investor in UniCredit, founder Edoardo Mercadante told Reuters.pdivdivdiv classBodysc17zpet90 cdBBJodiv

　　pParvus has gradually added to its UniCredit stake over time until it crossed the 5 threshold that triggers disclosure obligation, he said.p

　　pUniCredit is one of the European banks most heavily exposed to Russia and its shares have suffered heavy losses in the wake of Russias invasion of Ukraine.p

　　pA filing with market regulator Consob showed Parvus held 5.059 of the bank led by former UBS investment banking chief Andrea Orcel as of May 6.p

　　pA day earlier, in presenting firstquarter results, Orcel had surprised markets by announcing UniCredit was about to start a 1.6 billioneuro share buyback it had made conditional on the size of Russiarelated losses.p

　　pShares in UniCredit have been heavily hit by the banks large exposure to Russia, losing 39 of their value since early February due to concerns about capital distribution plans.p

　　pThe stock has rebounded 15 since the release of quarterly results on May 5 and the buyback announcement. p

　　pBased on data from UniCredits website, Parvus is the secondbiggest investor in the bank after BlackRock, which holds 5.26, and before Allianz which owns 3.19.p

　　pU.S. fund Capital Research and Management last week cut to 3.98 its previous 6.77 stake that made the California firm the largest investor in UniCredit.p

　　pThe escalation of the Ukraine crisis had prompted hedge funds facing large redemptions to dump UniCredit shares and also triggered selling from nonspeculative investors, a person with knowledge of the matter said.p

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　　pp Reporting by Valentina Za in Milan Editing by Matthew Lewisp

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