Speaking to Leasing Life this week, Hypo Group Alpe
Adria (HGAA) CEO Gottwald Kranebitter confirmed that his network
would be “prepared to consider offers” from parties interested in
buying five of the group’s leasing subsidiaries.
The recently nationalised Austrian bank, seeking to cut its
balance sheet in line with EU restructuring demands, is trying to
find buyers for leasing subsidiaries in Bulgaria, Hungary,
Macedonia, Germany and Ukraine – territories where the group has no
core retail banking infrastructure.
Inside Hypo’s banking territories, leasing units are
considered part of the group’s core banking activities,
and are likely to remain in business.
HGAA has six leasing offices in Bulgaria and two in Macedonia,
with 97 and 28 staff respectively. The other three Hypo leasing
businesses in territories without banking networks – Germany,
Hungary and Ukraine – employ a total of 77 staff.
According to Kranebitter, “new business
activities in 2009 were very limited”
for these subsidiaries, which now serve existing customers almost
exclusively.
Asked whether HGAA’s real estate leases were the most
problematic area of the books up for sale, Kranebitter commented:
“The portfolio quality varies from country to
country, from asset class to asset class, there is no general
pattern.”
Fred Crawley
