MILAN (Standard&Poor's) June 22, 2007--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that, following news of Italian bank UniCredito Italiano SpA's share purchase agreement to acquire a major shareholding in ATF Bank, Kazakhstan's fourth-largest bank by assets, it has placed its 'B+' long-term counterparty credit rating on ATF on CreditWatch with positive implications and affirmed the 'B' short-term counterparty credit rating. At the same time, Standard&Poor's affirmed its 'A+' long-term and 'A-1' short-term counterparty credit ratings on UniCredito and its subsidiary Bank Austria Creditanstalt AG (BA-CA); the outlook on both of these entities is stable. The acquisition will be carried out through UniCredito's subsidiary BA-CA and is subject to regulatory authorizations. "The positive CreditWatch implications on ATF
