HVB, Unicredito Merger Deal on Sunday?

The supervisory boards of Italian and German banks Unicredito and HypoVereinsbank (HVB) are to meet Sunday to rubber stamp merger plans, financial sources said on Friday. Unicredito and HVB had reached agreement on central points of a tie-up and the non-executive boards of both banks were to meet in Milan and Munich respectively to give the go-ahead to the planned deal, the sources said. The exact price of the merger still had to be agreed and that would be decided on the basis of the closing prices of both banks on Friday. Unicredito is meanwhile considering raising fresh capital after the merger, the daily Die Welt reported Friday, quoting financial sources. The funds from the capital increase could be used to buy out the minority shareholders in HVB's Austrian unit, Bank Austria Creditanstalt, the newspaper quoted the sources as saying.