Reuters- Leading Italian bank UniCredit was notified on Thursday of a legal action brought against it by some hedge funds that are minority shareholders of its German unit HVB, UniCredit said in astatement.
The legal action was also directed at UniCredit’s Chief Executive Officer Alessandro Profumo, the bank added.
The hedge funds were acting in response to alleged damage suffered as a result of the group reorganisation following UniCredit’s takeover of HVB in 2005.
UniCredit said it deemed the claims “unfounded as all the transactions mentioned (the reorganisation) have been carried out on an arm’s length basis (and) supported by independent, external opinions and evaluations.”
The bank and Profumo intend to take legal steps to safeguard their rights, Unicredit said.
