Best bank – Bank Austria Creditanstalt
Best debt house – CSFB
Best equities house – JPMorgan
Best M&A house – JPMorgan
Best local partner – KBC Securities via Patria Finance
Bank Austria has been fortunate in escaping much of the negative news about its German parent, HVB, and once again takes the award for best bank in Austria. It is by far the largest domestic bank, with total assets of e150 million, and claims to have a relationship with 80% of large corporates in Austria. From Vienna it has built a network across central and eastern Europe, with 900 offices in 15 countries. At the end of last year it launched PROMISE Austria-2002, the first securitization of Austrian mid-cap companies, in conjunction with HVB.
Banks and sovereign issuers once again dominated debt in Austria. CSFB put up a good show in both, gaining an overall market share of almost 20%. Among its achievements in the public markets was a debut fixed-rate issue for Kommunalkredit Austria (OKK) in May 2002. OKK, which raised e500 million, provides financing to municipalities and financial banks and is 51% owned by Dexia. In September, CSFB took advantage of demand from private-banking clients to launch a $400 million four-year transaction for the Republic of Austria. The deal was well oversubscribed. CSFB was also a co-lead manager on Oesterreichische Kontrollbank’s $1 billion five-year issue, a flying success, despite coming hard on the heels of a Fannie Mae deal with the same maturity. Deutsche Bank deserves credit too this year for a e400 million deal from first-time issuer Bundesimmobiliengesellschaft (BIG) which manages Austrian government-owned buildings. CSFB was a co-lead on the deal and later in the year handled two private placements into the Swiss market for BIG.
JPMorgan gets the award for best equities house. Besides having a top-three sales platform, by volume of equities traded, it has been lead manager on two key transactions over the past year. In July, it was joint bookrunner on Erste Bank’s e698 million rights issue to finance the acquisition of Czech bank Ceska Sporitelna. It also sold a e559 million stake in Telekom Austria in November on behalf of Telecom Italia, along with Merrill Lynch. Telekom Austria is an extremely illiquid stock and the deal was the equivalent of 311 days’ trading volume but was priced in just 10 hours.
JPMorgan has also handled all the significant M&A deals this year. It advised Getränke Beteiligungs and BBAG Österreichische Brau-Beteiligungs on their acquisition by Heineken. JPMorgan also worked with Mobilkom Austria when Telekom Austria bought back a 25% stake in the mobile subsidiary from Telecom Italia. Cross-border, it helped Erste Bank buy a majority stake in Rijecka Banka.
Among local houses in Austria, KBC Securities, offering corporate finance advice through its Czech subsidiary Patria Finance, is the best local partner. This year it used its knowledge of the Czech market to help Erste Bank increase its stake in Ceska Sporitelna to over 90%.
