GB00_erste lage_E - Erste Group

TRADINGAND INVESTMENT BANKING
Investment Banking
Erste Bank acts as lead manager or syndicate member in initial public offerings mainly of small
to medium-sized companies in various sectors, with a special focus on transaction in the Austrian
capital markets and the areas of technology and telecoms. Erste Bank is the market leader in
terms of the number of transactions.
In the past financial year, a total of 13 Austrian companies tapped the stock market for equity
financing, raising a total of EUR 2.4 billion. Ten of the transactions related to IPOs (six in Vienna,
four on Neuer Markt) and three were capital increases transacted in Vienna. In 2000 Erste Bank
was involved in five stock offerings by Austrian companies as well as three stock issues by German
companies, confirming its market leadership by reaching a market share of over 20% in this
segment.
In consistent pursuit of Erste Bank’s core strategy focused on offering small and medium-sized
companies access to the entire range of available financing instruments in particular in the field
of equity financing, Erste Bank took the lead in establishing a private equity group, Capexit Beteiligungsmanagement
AG (capital x people x exit = Capexit). Capexit is designed to provide fast-growing,
highly innovative technology companies with capital, know-how and a network of partners.
The group’s focus is on sectors like information and communication technologies, Internet, industrial
manufacturing and process control, environmental technologies, tainment, media and life
sciences. It primarily targets Austrian companies that have already outgrown the start-up phase
and entered the stage of expanding into new markets and diversifying into new products (secondstage
financing).
Equity sales and derivatives
Erste Bank’s sales and trading activities focus on Austrian products (stock of companies listed
on the Vienna Stock Exchange or Austrian shares listed elsewhere, as well as equity-linked products
and derivatives) and products from its “extended home market” in Central Europe. After 25%
contraction in 1999, market turnover on the Vienna Stock Exchange dropped also in the year
under report, but at 4%, the decrease was much lower than in the previous year.
Notwithstanding a rather difficult market environment in 2000, Erste Bank successfully defended
its leading market share in turnover of 22% on the Vienna Stock Exchange. With a market
share of more than 27 percent in trading activities with equity-linked products and derivatives
Erste Bank was able to further extend its market leadership in trading for the account of customers.
56 Erste Bank 2000
Partner for small and
medium-sized companies