Central and Eastern Europe à la carte - Raiffeisen Zentralbank ...

Corporate Customers
RZB 2006
RZB completed an interesting project with Renault/Axis that involved not just Raiffeisen Leasing in
Russia but also a number of export finance agencies. New business volumes in the export finance field
grew by over 16 per cent from € 1.8 billion to € 2.1 billion in 2006.
The CEE-region’s most successful arranger of syndicated loans
RZB continued to assert its leadership in the Central and Eastern European syndicated loans market
during 2006. RZB again handled more transactions than any other bank in the region with 63
mandates. The syndications market in Central and Eastern Europe grew to a total volume of € 69
billion. Almost all of the market’s growth occurred in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS),
which accounted for € 50 billion thereof. With a transaction volume of € 14.5 billion, RZB was able
to secure for itself a substantial proportion of the Central and Eastern European syndications market
as mandated lead arranger.
Borrowers’ confidence in RZB’s arranging expertise also generated growth in its corporate finance
operations. Within this competitive environment, RZB’s market share increased from seven to 15 per
cent in 2006 due to the arrangement of 17 syndicated loans with a volume of € 7.5 billion.
Its biggest syndications in Austria included loans of € 1.4 billion for Porsche System Engineering Ltd.
and € 415 million for Immofinanz Immobilien Anlagen AG. Most of the syndications in Central and
Eastern Europe were for the CIS region, including the aforementioned US$ 800 million facility for
Pyateroschka and a US$ 400 million facility for the Siberian Coal Energy Co, a US$ 350 million loan
for ROLF (Russia’s leading car dealer) and a US$ 1.3 billion loan for Russian mobile phone operator
MobileTelesystems.
Further strong growth in real estate loans
During the year under review, Raiffeisen Zentralbank granted a new record volume of commercial
real-estate finance loans totalling approximately € 1.3 billion. The main geographical focuses were
Austria, Western Europe and the CEE-region. The most noteworthy transactions in Austria were
structurings of large-volume loans for institutional investors, for instance to finance the purchase of
the former ÖGB headquarters building and the Allianz Group’s administrative HQ in Vienna. RZB
financed purchases of real-estate portfolios by foreign and Austrian investors – such as the conwert
Group – in Berlin, Leipzig and Dresden within the scope of the its German market offensive. In
addition, RZB was mandated to arrange finance for the construction of the Trump Tower in Toronto,
which will be one of the most exclusive residential and hotel building in Canada – not to mention the
highest, at 57 floors.
Financing the reduction of greenhouse gases
In 2006, RZB entered the wide-ranging climate protection market by financing four projects to reduce
greenhouse gases. The factories that were built reduced emissions by a total of 15 million metric
118 www.rzb.at Preface Managing Board Supervisory Board’s Report Overview of RZB Raiffeisen Banking Group