A&O assists UniCredit Bank Czech Republic and Slovakia with benchmark issuance of mortgage covered bonds

UniCredit Bank Czech Republic and Slovakia is the first Czech bank to adapt its international mortgage covered bond programme to, and to issue mortgage covered bonds under, the new Czech covered bond regulatory framework following the implementation of the EU Covered Bond Directive.

UniCredit Bank Czech Republic and Slovakia is also one of the first Czech issuers to implement the Czech WHT certification procedures that were introduced by the International Capital Market Services Association and implemented by both Euroclear and Clearstream with the help of Allen & Overy.

Commenting on the transaction, Massimo Francese, the Chief Financial Officer of UniCredit Bank Czech Republic and Slovakia, said: “Driven by the intention to diversify our wholesale funding franchise, we joined the EUR mortgage covered bond issuer community with the first benchmark sized transaction in syndicated form. We consider this issuance an important milestone for us and we believe to enable UniCredit Bank Czech Republic and Slovakia to utilize its high quality mortgage assets across the jurisdictions for potential future cost-efficient wholesale financing exercises."

Petr Vybíral, partner and head of the Banking and Capital Markets practice of Allen & Overy in Prague added: “I am extremely happy and grateful that we could have supported UniCredit Bank Czech Republic and Slovakia as the first Czech bank to issue mortgage covered bonds on the international capital markets following the implementation of the EU Covered Bond Directive and the introduction of the Czech WHT certification procedures.”

The Allen & Overy team was led by partner Petr Vybíral, in close cooperation with senior associate Tomáš Kafka and junior lawyer Jan Mourek. Senior tax advisor Michal Dušek provided specialist tax advice. The German law aspects were handled by partner Stefan Henkelmann with support from counsel Jens Nollmann.