Klagenfurt (OTS) – The next important step for Anadi Bank as part of its Strategy 3.0: Spin-off of all branches with 42,000 retail customers, 250 SME customers and a customer business volume of almost EUR 1.7 billion to Bank Burgenland of the GRAWE banking group. Handover of the business expected for September 2024. Anadi CEO Christian Kubitschek: “GRAWE banking group is the best partner for our branch network and the majority of our SME business because it places the highest value on regional expertise as well as customer and value orientation
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Anadi Bank is taking the next important step in its Strategy 3.0: As of today, Bank Burgenland (parent company of the GRAWE banking group) and Anadi Bank have signed the contract for the transfer of the branch network and the majority of the SME business. Bank Burgenland is taking over the ten branches of Anadi Bank with almost 70 employees, around 42,000 retail customers, around 250 SME customers and a total customer business volume of almost EUR 1.7 billion. The equity capital, the banking license, around 15,000 customers, around 160 employees and a balance sheet total of around EUR 1.5 billion remain in Anadi Bank. The project initiated last year under the name “Quadriga” is now coming to a successful conclusion. Following the transaction, Anadi Bank will focus on the Digital Banking and Public Finance business areas, both of which will continue to be served from its headquarters in Klagenfurt, as well as on the corporate business, which will be managed from its Vienna office. The capital released by the transaction will increase Anadi Bank’s total capital ratio from the current 15.7% to an expected level of almost 30%. This will make Anadi Bank one of the best capitalized banks in Austria and the entire DACH region and will be ideally prepared for the next steps of Strategy 3.0.
Closing expected for September 2024 – customers will be informed in detail
The supervisory authorities were extensively informed about the transaction. After the regulatory and competition approval processes required in the banking sector and taking into account the transfer and migration processes, the handover of the business (“closing”) to the new owner is expected in September 2024. For the time being, nothing will change for Anadi Bank’s customers, all banking transactions will continue unchanged, and the contact persons for the customers will remain the same – this aspect in particular was of great importance for both transaction partners. Anadi Bank will inform its customers in all business areas and the public in a timely manner about all conversion steps, with both sides ensuring a particularly customer-friendly process. Anadi Bank’s management and customer advisors will pay particular attention to customer discussions in the coming days and weeks and will respond to all customer questions.
Christian Kubitschek, CEO of Anadi Bank, about the transaction: “With Bank Burgenland and the GRAWE banking group, we have found the best takeover for our branch network and the majority of our SME business. We are placing the business in the experienced hands of a strong Austrian bank. Our customers will be in the best possible hands and looked after by the GRAWE banking group. The negotiations were characterized by a highly trusting climate with a strong focus on the needs of customers and employees. I know first-hand the great professionalism and binding values and customer culture of the GRAWE banking group. In addition, Bank Burgenland and Anadi Bank are sister institutions in the Hypo Banking Association and use the same core banking platform with “TiGital” (Accenture).
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Christian Jauk, CEO of the GRAWE banking group, says about the transaction: “We are pleased to be able to continue to offer Anadi Bank’s customers high-quality local support in the future. We believe in the branch business and the experienced, well-trained employees with roots in the region who will move from Anadi Bank to the GRAWE banking group. With this transaction, the GRAWE banking group is expanding its market area in branch and corporate customer business to Carinthia and is setting a strong example in the retail segment throughout Austria. We want to continue the success story that began with the acquisition of Bank Burgenland by GRAWE in 2006. With a solid business policy that always focuses on the trusting relationship between customers and advisors, Bank Burgenland has developed steadily in recent years and is now one of the leading state banks in Austria. We as the GRAWE banking group would now like to continue this path in Carinthia.”
The duration of the interest rate turnaround influenced the timing and scope of the negotiations
The decision to spin off the branch network and the SME business was made last year, before the biggest interest rate change since the ECB was founded. Anadi Bank was supported in the transaction by CONFIDUM Financial Management Consultants as transaction advisor, Binder Grösswang Rechtsanwälte as legal advisor and Ernst & Young as tax advisor.
For Anadi Bank, the identity of the acquirer and criteria such as values and customer culture, balance sheet and capital strength, growth plans and employee concept were of great importance. In addition to the interest rate turnaround, these demands were the reasons for extending the original project schedule. The interest rate turnaround is now likely to have come to an end, which made a transaction with great planning security possible for Anadi Bank and the GRAWE banking group.
The change in interest rates also led to a focus of the transaction on the branch and SME business. These business areas benefit particularly strongly from economies of scale, with size and regional ties being key value drivers. The areas of public finance and corporate banking, which remain with Anadi Bank, are characterized by the lower importance of economies of scale. After the interest rate turnaround, these business areas also show an extremely attractive risk-return profile. During the transaction process, Anadi Bank therefore decided to further develop these two areas together with its digital business as part of Strategy 3.0. The digital business also includes the mobile sales cooperation Anadi Connect with Austria’s independent financial service providers and the MARIE cooperation with Austria’s tobacconists. The transfer of the branch network and the majority of the SME business will have no impact on the customers of these business areas. However, after the transaction, Anadi Bank will also become even more attractive for existing customers with a capital ratio of almost 30%. In the future, management will focus even more on expanding the company’s already extensive digital expertise. In addition, the contact persons for customers and the usual short and binding decision-making processes in the public finance, corporate banking and digital banking divisions will be retained.
A transaction with added value for all stakeholders
CEO Christian Kubitschek is convinced of the benefits of the transaction for all stakeholders: “We are exiting these parts of our business from a position of strength. Anadi Bank is poised for another excellent year of revenue and profit. The transaction generates added value for all stakeholders: Carinthia as a location will be further enhanced by the transaction. Anadi Bank will create further attractive jobs in our home region, particularly in the digital sector. A visible sign of this is our extensive cooperation with the University of Klagenfurt in areas such as artificial intelligence, digitalization and blockchain technology. Our customers and employees in the branch and SME business will move to one of the best Austrian banking groups that places the highest value on regional competence as well as customer and value orientation. Our customers and employees in the public finance, corporate banking and digital banking business areas will benefit from our high capital strength and further investments in our digital expertise. We will make rapid use of the additional scope that this transaction gives us to expand our existing business in the coming years as part of Strategy 3.0.”, concludes CEO Kubitschek.
About Anadi Bank
In addition to the retail banking, corporate banking and public finance business segments, Anadi Bank focuses on the main growth area of digital banking. The institute is therefore consistently and vigorously expanding its digital offering. The bank has already successfully placed digital consumer credit and tablet-based banking on the Austrian market, which is offered under the brands “MARIE” (cooperation with tobacco specialist shops) and “Anadi Connect” (cooperation with financial service providers). Since entering the German market in 2021, Anadi Bank has already gained extensive experience with digital SME working capital loans, which it plans to use in the coming years to further expand in the digital SME lending sector. The strategic partnership with CAPTIQ for German chamber professionals underlines this commitment. The institute’s digital DNA is also visible in the bank’s internal digital area, where more than 40% (excluding branch network) of Anadi Bank’s approximately 250 employees already work. For around 58,000 customers and as the house bank of numerous companies in trade, industry and real estate and many municipalities and public institutions, the institute leverages the advantages of long-standing relationships of trust between customers and customer advisors, high innovative strength, digital competence and lean structures.
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