Živnostenská banka

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Živnostenská banka, a.s.

Type	Public
Founded	1868
Headquarters	Prague, Czech Republic
Key people	Ing. Jiří Kunert (CEO)
Industry	Financial services
Products	Banking, asset management, leasing and factoring
Revenue	€ 50,3 million
Employees	About 700

Živnostenská banka (herein ZIBA) is a major commercial bank operating in the Czech Republic. Since 2002 it has been a member of the Italian UniCredit Group.

[edit] History

1868 - Živnostenská banka (ZIBA) was established as a joint stock company focusing on the financing of Czech small and medium–sized enterprises (SMEs). It was the first bank in the Austro-Hungarian Empire to be financed entiirely by Czech capital, and had as its aim supporting the development of newly established Czech businesses. The bank also sought the deposits of small savers: tradesmen and owners of small Czech companies. ZIBA became the umbrella organization of a network of small Czech savings and loan associations. Prior to World War I (WWI), ZIBA took a minority holding in Serbian Credit Bank. Just before the outbreak of WWI, ZIBA had 1,068 employees, 11 branches in Bohemia and Moravia, and branches in Vienna, Cracow, Lviv, and Trieste. At that time ZIBA alone accounted for almost a third of the total capital of the Czech banking system.
1918 - After the formation of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918, ZIBA grew rapidly because of its role as the new state's key bank.
1920 - The Nostrification Law forced joint-stock companies to transfer their head offices to the territory of the new state where they had their factories and plants. This law created favorable conditions for Czech banks. ZIBA benefited enormously as it changed its strategy to one of providing loans to large industrial companies.
1922 - ZIBA established a branch in London. The bank fostered mergers among large Czech industrial corporations (for example the creation of the mechanical – engineering colossus CKD) and systematically built up its industrial empire. As the strongest bank in prewar Czechoslovakia, ZIBA controlled 60 companies, including the largest in the country. It also developed links with French and British financial institutions.
1938 - ZIBA had become a major financial actor in Central and Eastern Europe. On March 13, Germany annexed Austria. The Germans established Länderbank Wien by merging the Dresdner Bank - owned Merkurbank in Vienna, the Austrian business of the Zentral-Europäische Länderbank of Paris, and ZIBA's branch in Vienna. On September 29, as a result of the Munich Agreement, Czechoslovakia had to hand over the Sudetenland region to the German Reich. Dresdner Bank took over over ZIBA's Liberec, Usti nad Labem, Karlovy Vary and Teplice branches.
That same year Anglo-Czechoslovak and Prague Credit Bank established an office in New York. Next year, the bank changed its name to Anglo Prague Credit Bank.
World War II - ZIBA escaped direct annexation by a German bank, the only Czech bank to do so. Even so, it was forced to accept German control and to contribute heavily to German war financing. It purchased almost a billion crowns' worth of Reich treasury bills, a sum about three times the ZIBA's capital stock. Under German occupation, ZIBA tried more or less successfully, to protect the interests of Czech industry.
1945 - The Czechoslovak government nationalized ZIBA, together with all other Czech banks.
1948 - ZIBA absorbed Prague Credit Bank, the former Anglo-Prague Bank, and with it PCB's New York office.
1949 - ZIBA closed the New York office.
1950-6 - ZIBA continued to exist as a legal entity but the government severely restricted its activities.
1956-88 - ZIBA's international and foreign exchange experience led the government to make it the primary Czechoslovak bank for Comecon import and export business, in which its London branch played a significant role. ZIBA wais the repository for all foreign currency accounts maintained by expatriates, foreign firms operating in Czechoslovakia, and state agencies facilitating "invisible" trade such as tourism.
1988 - ZIBA returned to corporate business.
1992 - ZIBA was the first bank in Central and Eastern Europe to be privatized. Germany's BHF-BANK took up 40% of the shares, the IFC acquired 12%, and the remaining 48% went to private individuals and Czech investment funds.
1998 - Bankgesellschaft Berlin becames the largest shareholder in ZIBA after taking over BHF-BANK's now 47% equity stake. Other significant shareholders were the IFC and Crédit Commercial de France.
2000 - Bankgesellschaft Berlin increased its stake in ZIBA to 85.16%. At this time, the bank had branches in Prague, Brno, Ceske Budejovice, Karlovy Vary, Liberec, Ostrava, Pardubice and Zlin. It also had a representative office in Bratislava to handle operations in the Slovakia.
2002 - UniCredito Italiano acquired Bankgesellschaft Berlin's stake and launched a tender offer for all the remaining shares.