Raiffeisen CFO Gruell Moves to Reassure Market on Capital - Bloomberg
Raiffeisen Bank International AG (RBI) Chief Financial Officer Martin Gruell told investors not to be concerned about the Austrian bank’s capital levels or a possible cash call as bond and share prices continued to decline.
“Despite ongoing speculation, I want to reassure the market that no capital increase is planned,” Gruell said in an e-mailed response to questions from
Bloomberg News. “RBI will continue to comfortably meet all regulatory
capital requirements. However, in order to further strengthen the capital ratios, we continue to evaluate and implement various other measures.”
The comments came after analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co wrote last week that Raiffeisen, the international arm of an Austrian cooperative banking group, may cause a “domino effect” of capital shortfalls if it’s forced into a dilutive cash call. The analysts cited risks in Russia, Ukraine and
Asia as well as the appreciating Swiss franc.
The shares closed at 9.93 euros in Vienna, a record low, down 2.7 percent on the day. They have decreased about 21 percent this year, cutting the company’s market capitalization to 2.9 billion euros ($3.3 billion).
Bond Plunge
Bonds of Raiffeisen and lenders in its group extended the declines that have made the securities the biggest losers in Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Euro Financial High Yield index year to date.
Junior bonds of Raiffeisen Zentralbank Oesterreich AG, owner of a 61 percent stake in the Vienna-based lender, plunged 8.9 cents on the euro to 34 cents, the lowest since 2009. The undated securities, which
Standard & Poor’s cut to BB- from BB on Jan. 23, have declined almost 48 percent this year. The rating, which S&P said it may cut again by as much as another two levels, is three steps below investment grade.
Raiffeisen’s 500 million euros of 6 percent notes maturing in October 2023 added to declines that have cut their market value by 30 percent this year, falling 5 cents on the euro to 64.18 cents.
Raiffeisen last tapped equity markets with a 2.8 billion-euro share sale last January. It is the second-biggest lender in eastern
Europe after UniCredit SpA. The lender has said in the past that it seeks to improve its
capital ratios by selling or securitizing assets and that it could restructure or sell units that are unprofitable or tie up too much capital.
The Raiffeisen cooperative group goes back to
19th century German reformer Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen. About 490 local lenders and nine regional banks carry out the domestic business in towns and villages across the country. Collectively, they have assets of 282 billion euros, equivalent to 87 percent of
Austria’s 323 billion-euro economy.
To contact the reporter on this story: Boris Groendahl in Vienna at
[email protected]
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Patrick Henry at
[email protected] Simone Meier