BEST BANK
RZB- Austria
BEST DEBT HOUSE
CSFB
BEST EQUITY HOUSE
Merrill Lynch
BEST M&A HOUSE
Deutsche Bank
The three largest Austrian banks have proved their mettle in a challenging economic environment. Bank Austria Creditanstalt increased its profits in 2004 by 36%, largely through its activities in central and eastern Europe, and Erste Bank der Österreicheischen Sparkassen achieved a pre-tax profit of more than €1 billion, nearly 40% up on the previous year.
But Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich was the best of the bunch. Although its total profits lag those of Bank Austria Creditanstalt, RZB’s 106% pre-tax profit increase cannot be ignored. Its pre-tax return on equity was 27.4% in 2004, compared with 13.4% at Bank Austria Creditanstalt.
The Raiffeisen banking group has its fair share of the Austrian retail market. And it successfully prepared and executed the IPO of Raiffeisen International Bank-Holding, which directs its CEE business. The deal priced at €32.50, just 50 cents below the top of the range and at a premium to 2005 estimates, and was 20 times oversubscribed. The shares traded up 27% in the aftermarket.
RZB was the second most active bookrunner of Austrian equity issues in the 12 months up to May 2005, behind Merrill Lynch, and was one of only two local banks in Dealogic’s top 20 bookrunners for the same period.
ABN Amro gave its usual strong performance and has a claim to be the best debt house for Austrian corporates. But CSFB was the most active bookrunner in Austria, both by volumes of debt issued and by number of deals.
The bank executed 33 big public deals from May 2004 to April 2005 – nearly half as many again as its closest competitor. It led two of the Republic of Austria’s dollar deals and acted as joint lead manager on its €4 billion benchmark in January. Deals for Asfinag and Schig showed the bank’s strength in the agency market. And CSFB’s Swiss franc placing power made it the natural choice for financial institutions such as Erste Bank and RZB that wanted to tap the Swiss investor base for the first time.
The Austrian equity market has enjoyed a landmark 12 months. The €1.1 billion sale of 17% of Telekom Austria narrowly beat the IPO of Raiffeisen International for the title of Austria’s largest ever ECM deal. Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan both got a valuable league table boost as bookrunners on the Telekom Austria deal.
But Merrill Lynch was the most prominent house, running four deals with a combined value of $1.609 billion – over 25% of the market. As well as teaming up with RZB to work on Raiffeisen International’s IPO, it worked on three issues by oil and natural gas group OMV.
In M&A, Deutsche Bank advised OMV on its purchase of Romanian state-owned oil and gas company SNP Petrom, and joint venture VA Tech Schneider on VA Technologie’s purchase of its remaining 40% stake.
