Austria

América Móvil, the Mexican telecoms group controlled by Carlos Slim, has reduced its stake in Austrian communications provider Telekom Austria by 0.89%, in a trade that fulfils a promise made to the Austrian government two years ago to reduce its stake in the company to no more than 51%.

Oberbank, the Austrian regional lender, is considering a €100m rights issue in the fourth quarter to strengthen its balance sheet and finance its plans for expansion and earnings growth, the company said this week.

Austrian construction firm Porr has completed an amended and extended €65m of Schuldscheine signed last year, securing tighter margins and longer tenors.

Erste Bank announced the redemption of three legacy tier ones this week, with the Austrian lender possibly set to leap into the additional tier one (AT1) market this summer.

Citigroup has issued on Thursday an unusual €374m bond, exchangeable into shares of Telekom Austria, as part of a deal that enabled América Móvil to reduce its stake in the company, fulfilling an earlier promise, without suffering a big fall in the share price.

Sapinda has sold its 18.6% stake in Austrian-German home builder and asset manager Buwog, via an accelerated bookbuild on Tuesday evening.

The number of active covered bond borrowers looks set to hit a new record after Moody’s assigned its top rating to the hard bullet mortgage covered bond programme of Austria’s Raiffeisenlandesbank Oberoesterreich (RFLBOB).

CA Immobilien Anlagen, the Austrian real estate business, was able to increase the size of a new issue to €140m on Tuesday, with strong support from domestic investors.

Shares in Erste Bank and Euskaltel closed nearly 4% lower on Wednesday after two block trades were executed in their shares on Tuesday evening.

Citigroup has hired an equity capital markets banker from Deutsche Bank to help its business in the German-speaking region.

German and Austrian covered bond issuers are expected to benefit if the Austrian government’s most recent offer for partial repayment of Heta Asset Resolution’s senior and subordinated debt is accepted by its creditors. Despite the more positive outlook, the loss of trust may take years to repair and for the time being Austrian covered bonds are unloved.

Erste Bank, the Austrian lender that failed to pay a coupon on legacy tier one debt just 18 months ago, this week mandated leads for an inaugural additional tier one transaction that could be one of the juiciest trades ever to hit the market.