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vious year) was also noticeably and significantly
longer.
Expansion of financing for Austrian companies
The year 2004 was marked by a significant revival
in demand for long-term finance in the domestic
market. At around EUR 800 m, the volume of outgoing
payments – even against the background of
increasing internationalisation by Austrian companies
– was significantly above the level for the
previous year (around EUR 700 m). This volume
expansion was primarily achieved with capital market
instruments and specialist solutions. Consistently
applying the same rules for setting conditions
that reflected the risk involved led to an
improvement in the risk-reward structure, despite
a very competitive environment. This meant that
there was a rise in the contribution to income from
domestic business despite the slight drop in the
total volume of financing.
Capital market financing transactions and
Mittelstandsbonds as innovative instruments
Since 2004 there has been a remarkable trend in
the form of an interesting structural development:
Medium-sized companies discovered and took
advantage of the opportunities provided by the
capital markets. Mittelstandsbonds, i.e. the issue
of low-volume bonds, were much in demand. In cooperation
with Austria Wirtschaftsservice GmbH
(AWS), Investkredit has found an innovative way
that complies with capital market requirements to
adapt the demand in terms of volume for corporate
bonds to the needs of medium-sized as well as
larger Austrian companies. These securitised financing
transactions can have a volume starting as low
as EUR 5 m. Investkredit acts as arranger and bundles
the Mittelstandsbonds into a portfolio for a
structured issue on the capital market. Mittelstandsbonds
are accordingly well under the usual size
requirements. They are suited to medium-sized
companies that are too big to receive subsidised
financing according to the EU subsidy guidelines but
too small from the perspective of capital market
investors. On the one hand, this construction allows
medium-sized companies to gain access to new
sources of capital, especially in view of the forthcoming
changes under Basel II. This gives these
companies an equality of opportunity with the big
companies that comply with capital market requirements.
On the other hand, institutional investors
gain access to new ways of investing in mediumsized
companies.
Now that eight Mittelstandsbond issues have been
successfully placed, Mittelstandsbonds made up
around 50% of Austrian new issues in the year
under review.
FINANCING TRANSACTIONS COMPLETED IN 2004 BY THE CORPORATE SEGMENT
in terms of volume
Slovakia 3.7% Czechia 9.7%
Poland 10.4%
Germany 27.4%
Core market 87.7%
SEGMENT REPORTING / CORPORATES
Hungary 6.7%
Rest of Eastern Europe 6.0%
Rest of the EU 3.6%
Rest of Western Europe 0.9%
Rest of the World 1.8%
Austria 29.8%
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