Fact Sheet
January 2015
Profile
Founded in 1819 as the first Austrian savings bank, Erste Group went public in 1997
with a strategy to expand its retail business into Central and Eastern Europe (CEE).
Since then Erste Group has grown through numerous acquisitions and organically to
become one of the largest financial services providers in the Eastern part of the EU
in terms of clients and total assets:
The number of customers has increased from 600,000 to approx. 16.2 million in
Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary, Croatia and Serbia.
Erste Group's key business is the retail business, covering the entire spectrum
from lending, deposit and investment products to current accounts and credit
cards.
Besides the traditional strength in serving private individuals, Erste Group's core
activities include advisory services and support for corporate clients in financing,
investment and access to international capital markets, public sector funding and
interbank market operations.
Products & Services
Customer banking in Central and Eastern Europe
Eastern part of EU
Focus on CEE, limited exposure to other Europe
Retail banking
Corporate banking
Capital markets
Public sector
Focus on local
currency mortgage
and consumer loans
funded by local
deposits
Large, local
corporate and SME
banking
Focus on customer
business, incl.
customer-based
trading activities
Financing
sovereigns and
municipalities with
focus on
infrastructure
development in core
markets
FX loans only in EUR
for clients with EUR
income (or equivalent)
and where funded by
local FX deposits (RO,
HR & RS)
Savings products,
asset management
and pension products
Advisory services,
with focus on
providing access to
capital markets and
corporate finance
Real estate business
that goes beyond
financing
Potential future
expansion into
Poland
In addition to core
markets, presences
in Poland, Turkey,
Germany and London
with institutional client
focus and selected
product mix
Building debt and
equity capital markets
in CEE
Any sovereign
holdings are only
held for marketmaking, liquidity or
balance sheet
management
reasons
Interbank
business
Focus on banks
that operate in the
core markets
Any bank exposure
is only held for
liquidity or balance
sheet management
reasons or to
support client
business
Erste Group in a nutshell
16.2mn clients
44,000 employees
2,800 branches in 7 countries
EUR 197bn total assets
EUR 13.7bn total equity
EUR 2.3bn operating result
10.8% core tier 1 ratio (Basel 2.5;
phased-in)
100.3% loan-deposit-ratio
Erste Group's business position
Market leader in AUT, CZ, RO, SK
No. 1 asset manager in CEE with
EUR 51.9bn assets under management
Top position in debt capital markets AUT
& CEE with >10% market share
Top corporate bank in CEE with a large
corporates loan volume of EUR 9.8bn
Leading Mandated Lead Arranger of
syndicated loans in CEE
No. 2 in CEE commercial real estate
Management Board
Andreas Treichl, CEO
Jozef Síkela, Board member responsible
for corporates
Gernot Mittendorfer, CFO and CPO
Andreas Gottschling, CRO
Petr Brávek, COO
Shareholder structure
UNIQA Versicherungsverein Privatstiftung
4.1%
ERSTE Foundation direct
10.9%
Lone Pine Capital
4.1%
Harbor Int.
Fund
4.0%
ERSTE Foundation
indirect*
9.2%
CaixaBank
9.9%
Potential future
expansion into Poland
Employees
1.0%
Retail
Investors
9.6%
Institutional
Investors
47.2%
Erste Group's presence
Total number of shares: 429,800,000
Free float: 70.0%
*Includes voting rights of Erste Foundation, savings
banks, savings bank foundations and Wiener Städtische
Wechselseitige Versicherungsverein.
Listings and index representation
Listings
Index
Vienna Stock Exchange
Prague Stock Exchange
Bucharest Stock Exchange
ATX
PX
ROTX
Weighting
(30/09/2014)
16.76%
18.10%
18.61%
Public trading via a Level I ADR
programme in the U.S.
MSCI Standard Index
DJ Euro Stoxx Banks Index
FTSEurofirst 300 Index
Ratings
Long-Term
S&P
Fitch
Moody’s
AA
Baa2
Short-Term
Outlook
A-2
F1
P-2
Negative
Negative
Negative
Fact Sheet
January 2015
Financial results Q3 2014
30.10.2014 – Operating and net profit in line with guidance; solid capital base;
credit growth coupled with massive reduction of bad loans
"Our results for the first nine months of 2014 are
in line with the assumptions we made this
Capital ratio (Basel 3)*
summer,” commented Andreas Treichl, CEO of
31/12/13
Erste Group Bank AG, on the results for the first
16.3% 15.7%
30/09/14
three quarters of 2014. "We comfortably passed
the AQR and stress test conducted by the ECB
11.4% 10.8%
resp. EBA, despite the harsher assumptions
used for some of our CEE core markets especially the Czech Republic and Croatia compared to Southern and Western Europe.
Additional risk provisions are currently not
Total capital
CET 1
expected. We were able to reduce non*Dec 13 pursuant Basel 2.5 (phased-in)
performing loans by more than EUR 1bn on a
year-on-year comparison and are showing a
strongly improved credit quality for the fifth quarter in a row. The growth outlook for our
region is, despite a slight weakening, still double as high as that of the eurozone - this
will allow, after a long time, for our healthy loan portfolio to grow again. Our capital base
is better than expected, and therefore the CET1-ratio should be comfortably above
10% also at the end of the year," concluded Treichl.
Outlook for Erste Group
Erste Group maintains its risk cost guidance of EUR 2.1b to EUR 2.4b and its outlook
for the net loss of EUR 1.4b to EUR 1.6b in 2014. Erste Group reiterates the outlook for
2015 of strongly improved post-provisioning results and a net profit that will lead to a
return on tangible equity between 8% and 10% in 2015. For Romania, Erste Group
maintains its outlook for 2015, with accelerated NPL reduction which started already
this year. In Hungary, Erste Group expects normalization of risk cost to 150 to 200 basis
points the latest in 2016.
Macroeconomic outlook for Central and Eastern Europe
This year, CEE economies are expected to grow by 2.5% on average versus 1.2% in
2013. Hungary and Poland should perform the best (3.3% and 3.1%, respectively),
while growth can be around the average in the Czech Republic (2.5%). Slovakia should
grow by 2.2% and Romania by 1.8%. The second half of 2014, CEE economies slowed
down as a result of the Ukrainian-Russian crisis and growth problems of the Eurozone.
The trend can be partially counterbalanced by domestic demand. “As for the upcoming
year, the average growth should roughly stay at the same level yet the composition
may differ. Romania, the Czech Republic and Slovakia are expected to speed up,
Poland is expected to show a similar growth (around 3%), while Hungary should slow
down to 2.3%. Croatia and Serbia is expected to contract in 2014. Figures for these
countries should improve somewhat next year, but unevenly,” explains Zoltán
Árokszállási, Chief Analyst of CEE Macro/Fixed Income Research at Erste Group.
Next year, Serbia is expected to grow by 0.5% (after a nearly 2% decline in 2014), while
Croatia should stagnate after a mild decline in 2014. “In general, growth in the CEE
region should still exceed the Eurozone by around 1.5 percentage points in 2015,”
adds Árokszállási.
Did you know that …
…25 years after the fall of communism, GDP per capita in CEE is now 65% of the
Western European average, compared with 49% in 1989? Today, CEE countries
are substantially more prosperous than 25 years ago. (Source: Erste Group Research)
…car ownership has doubled across CEE, and in Poland and the Czech Republic
has already reached Western European levels? (Source: Erste Group Research)
…Czech Republic placed 26th in the Economic Freedom Index among 178
countries? Hong Kong remains the freest economy in the world while Congo and
Venezuela are placed at the tail. (Source: heritage.org)
…Dacia in Romania showed a turnover of EUR 4.48bn in 2013 which equals 2.9%
of the country's GDP? Dacia is responsible for 130,000 jobs in Romania and for 8% of
the country's total exports. (Source: theguardian.com)
…Slovakia, Poland, Czech Republic improved dramatically in the quality of life
ranking from 2003 to 2013, with Czech Republic actually surpassing Italy and the
UK? Moreover, according to the Legatum Prosperity Index 2014, Czech Republic,
Poland, Slovakia and Hungary are among TOP 40 most prosperous countries out of
142 worldwide. (Source: Eurostat, Legatum Institute)
News and Reports
11.11.2014 25 years after communism can CEE climb its way back to growth?
Having put communism behind, CEE
countries underwent a transition that
fundamentally transformed their economies.
The leap in terms of wealth levels and living
standards has been tremendous, with the
average GDP per capita jumping to 65% from
49% twenty-five years ago. “Former Soviet
satellites have become fully-fledged EU
members. Institutional and legal frameworks
were rebuilt from scratch. The free flow of
goods, services and human capital helped to
completely turn these economies around. And
very importantly, reforms increased the share
of the private sector in GDP from extremely
low levels of even 10% to close to 80%,” said
Juraj Kotian, Head of CEE Macro/Fixed
Income Research at Erste Group.
22.10.2014 Erste Group Savings
Barometer: How much is left to feed
the piggy bank?
Austrians increased their average monthly
savings by EUR 7 (to EUR 188), while Slovaks
saved EUR 6 more (EUR 96) than last year.
Croats (EUR 60), Romanians (EUR 41) and
Hungarians (EUR 49) kept their savings
stable while Czechs (EUR 75; -EUR 6) and
Serbs (EUR 35; -EUR 1) saved less than in
2013. “Given the long period of negative
consumer sentiment in the Czech Republic
over the past few years, the decreased
savings amount is a good sign that
consumption has finally picked up”, said Peter
Bosek, Head of retail board at Erste Group.
Almost eight out of ten Austrians, more than
every second Slovak and almost every
second Croat are using savings books or
savings accounts. Czechs are using
government-endorsed pension insurances
(55%), Hungarians (34%) and Serbs (9%)
prefer life insurances while Romanians invest
their savings into gold or other precious
metals (26%).
02.10.2014 CEE sovereign bonds among
best investments in Europe this year high returns and low volatility increase
investor appeal
The CEE government bond market has
become more significant over the past few
years as these countries' relative rating has
improved vs. the Eurozone. “One of the
hottest investment topics at the moment is the
low interest rate environment, so we have
seen more institutional investors looking to
diversify their portfolios and thus eyeing CEE
sovereign bonds.” said Juraj Kotian, Head of
CEE Macro/Fixed Income Research at Erste
Group.
24.09.2014 fair.versity Austria 2014:
Erste Group signs “Diversity Charter“
Within the scope of fair.versity, Austria's only
career fair dedicated to diversity and held at
the Vienna city hall, Andreas Treichl, CEO of
Erste Group Bank AG, signed the “Diversity
Charter” on behalf of the banking group.
“Many studies have proven that companies
with a commitment to diversity and integration
achieve higher customer satisfaction, have
more committed employees and generally
have a better image,” stressed Diversity
Manager Vera Budway-Strobach. Within
Erste Group, Steiermärkische Bank und
Sparkassen AG have already signed the
Diversity Charter and Česká spořitelna has
signed its own national Charter.
Erste Group, Graben21, A-1010 Vienna, www.erstegroup.com
Press Department: +43(0)50100 - 19603, [email protected]