Sofia, 14 June 2017

UBB will be the name of the new united bank after

the merger between CIBANK and UBB

Peter Andronov is the new Chief Executive Officer of UBB

KBC Group becomes the largest financial group in Bulgaria with a total of 10 companies

Today, the first General Meeting of UBB after its acquisition by the Belgian bancassurance group KBC Group, voted for the one-tier management structure of UBB to be changed to a two-tier management structure, and it also selected the following members of the Supervisory Board of the bank: Luc Popelier, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Willem Hueting, Member of the Supervisory Board, and Christine Van Rijsseghem, Member of the Supervisory Board. The three of them also form the Supervisory Board of the other bank in the group of KBC Group in Bulgaria – CIBANK.

After the General Meeting, the Supervisory Board has held its first meeting and has selected the members of the new Management Board of UBB. Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Management Board of UBB will be Peter Andronov, Country Manager of KBC Group for Bulgaria. He will combine his two new positions in UBB with his current management positions in CIBANK. The other members of the new Management Board of UBB are:

• Christof De Mil, Chief Financial Officer, UBB
• Frank Jansen, Executive Director Corporate and SME, UBB
• Svetla Georgieva, Chief Risk Officer, UBB
• Teodor Marinov, Executive Director Restructuring and Credit Management, UBB
• Ivaylo Mateev, Chief Operations Officer, UBB

In the top management will be also Jan Swinnen as an Attorneys-in-Fact of UBB. At a later stage Hristina Filipova will also join the top management of UBB as a Procurator.

The new Chief Executive Officer Peter Andronov has disclosed that the name of the new united bank after the merger between UBB and CIBANK will be UBB, and as of today the logo of KBC Group is added to the graphic sign of UBB. He has clarified that for the time being the two banks continue to function as independent legal entities and there will be no significant changes for the clients before their operational union.

With the closure of the transaction of acquisition of UBB, KBC Group becomes the largest financial group in Bulgaria with 10 companies covering the full range of financial services. In addition to CIBANK and DZI (with two subsidiaries), the Group is joined by UBB, Interlease (with two subsidiaries), UBB Asset Management, UBB Factoring, UBB Insurance Broker and 60% of UBB Metlife.

Andronov also announced the new management of the subsidiaries. Chief Executive Officer of Interlease will be Rudolph Kypta, and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Interlease will be Frank Jansen. Katina Peycheva will continue to hold her current position of Executive Director of UBB Asset Management, and as a Chairman of the Board of Directors is appointed Jan Swinnen. Executive Director of UBB Insurance Broker will be Deyan Avramov, and Chairman of the Board of Directors – Frank Jansen. UBB Factoring will be headed by Tsvetana Georgieva, who is currently heading the company. Kosta Cholakov, who is Chief Executive Officer of DZI, will also hold the position of Chairman of the Management Board of UBB Metlife.

Note for the editors:

About KBC (www.kbc.com)

KBC is an integrated multi-channel bank-insurance group, catering mainly for retail, SME and local midcap clients. It concentrates on its core markets of Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Ireland and Slovakia. Elsewhere around the globe, the group has established a presence in selected countries and regions. KBC’s headquarters are located in Brussels (Belgium). The group employs more than 38 000 people and is listed on Euronext Brussels (ticker symbol 'KBC').

About KBC’s presence in Bulgaria (www.cibank.bg, www.dzi.bg, www.kbc.com)

In 2007, KBC acquired both CIBANK and DZI Insurance. Collaboration in the field of bank-insurance between DZI and CIBANK has grown significantly in recent years.

CIBANK currently holds ninth position in terms of total assets. The bank serves its 240,000 retail and SME clients through a network of approximately 100 branches and through electronic channels. Insurance is distributed through various channels. CIBANK is a universal bank, focused on home finance and savings. The bank offers a comprehensive range of financial services on the market, using the successful KBC distribution model for bank-insurance. CIBANK has 1.6 billion euros worth of assets (3M2017), a loan portfolio of 0.9 billion euros and deposits of 0.9 billion euros.

DZI Insurance is active in both life and non-life insurance with market shares of 11,1% and 10,9%, respectively.

About UBB

UBB was established in 1992 through the merger of 22 Bulgarian regional commercial banks and has been part of the financial group of the National Bank of Greece (NBG) since 2000.

UBB caters for retail, SME and large corporate clients and offers the full range of financial and banking products, among which investment banking, insurance, mutual funds, brokerage services and leasing through its affiliates. UBB’s network comprises 190 branches and 691 ATMs in prime locations across the country.

UBB is Bulgaria’s fourth-largest banking group by total assets (3.5 billion euros) with market share of 7,4% as at the end of March 2017. UBB caters for approximately 875 000 retail customers with market share of 9,7% in retail loans. UBB also has a strong presence in the corporate banking market with a share of 7,6% in corporate loans.

UBB has a track record of strong pre-provision profitability. The bank has a robust capital position (CET1 ratio of 22.8% as at the end of March 2017) and reported the highest CET1 ratio among large banks in both the base and adverse stress test scenarios during the recent 2016 Asset Quality Review/Stress Tests. Its cost/income ratio amounted to 45% in the first quarter of 2017, putting it among the most cost efficient banks in the sector.