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Hypovereinsbank: raised its profile
in buying Bank Austria |
With market share at a premium in central and eastern
Europe's emerging economies, some banks are looking farther afield
for ways to gain scale. Take Germany's Hypovereinsbank, which in
2000 boosted its regional profile with the purchase of an Austrian
bank.
In acquiring Vienna-based Bank Austria/Creditanstalt for e8
billion, Hypovereinsbank not only captured a considerable chunk of
the banking market in an EU neighbour. It also reshaped the
competitive landscape in five more countries to the east.
"The fact that they have merged has presented us with a major new
competitive threat," says the Warsaw-based CEO of a western-owned
Polish bank. "We were bigger than either of them prior to the
merger. Now we are looking up at them. It shows just how sensitive
Poland is to events in other markets."
It's a lament common among senior executives at banks...
