Hypo Group Alpe Adria

Hypo Group Alpe Adria
Public
Industry Finance and Insurance
Founded 1896
Headquarters Klagenfurt, Austria
Products Commercial banking, Investment banking, Leasing, Asset management
Website www.hypo-alpe-adria.com

The Hypo Group Alpe Adria (HGAA) is an Austrian banking group with numerous cross-border activities in the Alps-Adriatic region. The group is active in Austria, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Hungary and Ukraine.[1]

In May 2007 the BayernLB bought 50% plus one share (controlling stake) of HGAA for 1.63 billion Euros.[2]

On 14 December 2009, BayernLB, Kärntner Landesholding and Grazer Wechselseitige Versicherung sold their stakes in the bank to the Austrian government for 1 Euro each.[3] The bank was nationalised by the Austrian government to avert a bank collapse.[4] It is expected that between 13 and 19 billion Euros of outstanding loans will never be paid back; to avoid bankruptcy, the Austrian taxpayers will have to cover this loss. [5]

The headquarters, which accounts for around 500 employees, is located in Klagenfurt, Austria and is responsible for controlling the subsidiary banks in Austria, Italy and South-Eastern Europe as well as those markets from which the bank is currently withdrawing (wind-down markets).[6]

As of February 2014, the HGAA situation was unsolved,[7] causing Chancellor Werner Faymann to warn that its failure would be comparable to the 1931 Creditanstalt event.[8]

In March 2014, the Austrian government decided to split HGAA into a Balkans banking unit, an Italian business and a bad bank, Heta Asset Resolution. The Balkans unit is to be sold in 2015 to Advent International (80%) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (20%). It was intended to wind down Heta Asset Resolution over a period of years.[9]

On 1 March, 2015 the Financial Market Authority of Austria imposed a moratorium on debt and interest payments by Heta Asset Resolution on unguaranteed debt, after an audit found that it had a capital shortfall of up to 7.6 billion euros.[10]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Group Structure: Material Subsidiaries as of 31.12.2012". Hypo-alpe-adria.com. May 5, 2013.
  2. ↑ "BayernLB übernimmt Hypo Alpe Adria". Handelsblatt (in German). May 22, 2007.
  3. ↑ (German) "BayernLB kauft sich von Hypo Group Alpe Adria frei", Handelsblatt (in German), December 14, 2009
  4. ↑ Reuters: "Austria nationalises ailing Hypo"
  5. ↑ (German) "Die Hypo und die Rechenkünstler", Die Presse (in German), 2014-02-14
  6. ↑ "Austria nationalises ailing Hypo -FinMin". Reuters. Retrieved 2014-01-04.
  7. ↑ bloomberg.com: "Hypo Alpe Debt Cut Four Steps as a kind of Insolvency Not Ruled Out" 15 Feb 2014
  8. ↑ bloomberg.com: " Faymann Evokes 1931 Austria Creditanstalt Crash on Hypo Alpe" 17 Feb 2014
  9. ↑ Michael Shields (2014-12-23). "Austria sells Hypo Balkans network to private equity firm Advent". Reuters.
  10. ↑ "Austria imposes debt moratorium on Heta "bad bank"". Reuters. 2015-03-01.

External links

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