UniCredit, the Italian bank that transformed itself into the euro area's second-biggest bank through a slew of acquisitions, is putting further buys on hold, its chief executive said yesterday.

Last May, Alessandro Profumo said his bank would be open to further deals after snapping up smaller Italian rival Capitalia.

Two years earlier, Mr Profumo had engineered the acquisition of one of Germany's biggest banks, HVB, in one of Europe's largest cross-border banking takeovers.

But Mr Profumo made it clear yesterday that the shopping spree was over for at least two years and the focus was now on integration.

"We have a fantastic potential value coming from increasing even more [ our] integration," Mr Profumo (50) said. "We are completely focused on that."

This ruled out acquisitions in the near term, he added. "I am used to having a horizon of two to three years, and I don't know what might happen afterwards," he said.

UniCredit, which is Italy's biggest bank, is now the biggest bank in central and eastern Europe by assets, helped by the integration of HVB's highly profitable former Bank Austria operations.

UniCredit remained committed to the German retail market through HVB and planned to grow that business by winning new customers, Mr Profumo said.

UniCredit shares closed flat at €5.45. - (Reuters)