LONDON (Standard&Poor's CreditWire) Aug. 2, 1999--Standard&Poor's today affirmed its single-'A'-plus long-term and its 'A-1' short-term counterparty credit and certificate of deposit ratings on UniCredito Italiano SpA and its operating units (see below for list of full rating actions). The ratings were removed from CreditWatch, where they were placed on March 23, 1999, with negative implications. The outlook is stable. At the same time, Standard&Poor's affirmed its triple-'B'-minus long-term ratings on Bank Pekao SA (see separate news release). The outlook on Bank Pekao is positive. The ratings affirmation of UniCredito follows the bank's acquisition of a 50.1% stake in the Polish banking group Bank Pekao for about Italian lira (ITL) 2,000 billion (about $1.09 billion).
