Bank Austria Creditanstalt (BA-CA), owned by Italian bank UniCredit , completed the sale of its Croatian subsidiary HVB Splitska Banka to French Societe Generale last Friday. The price of the deal was EUR 1 billion. The sale of HVB Splitska Banka was necessary for anti-monopoly reasons. HVB Splitska Banka, with a network of 112 branches and a workforce of 1,112, had a balance sheet value of EUR 3.2 billion at the end of 2005. The bank has some 460,000 clients. BA-CA, which will be responsible for UniCredit business in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), will assume control of the UniCredit Croatian subsidiary Zagrebacka Banka (ZABA). ZABA, with a balance sheet value of EUR 8.9 billion, is leader on the Croatian banking market with a share of 24 per cent. The bank has 130 branches with a staff of 4,200 and provides services to 1.2 million clients. UniCredit operates 2,900 branches with a staff of 60,000 in CEE where it has some 17 million clients.