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Austrian finance minister doubts court will hinder Heta deal

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May 31 An outline bond buyback deal between Austria and creditors of “bad bank” Heta Asset Resolution is unlikely to be jeopardised by a court case due to resume in Frankfurt next month, Finance Minister Hans Joerg Schelling said on Tuesday.

In March a regional court in Frankfurt delayed until June 9 a ruling in a case brought against a moratorium on Heta bond repayments, staving off the threat of immediate insolvency for Heta.

Despite the outline deal reached this month to buy back Heta bonds at a discount to their original face value, a financial source said that some creditors still hope to get back all their money through the case brought by FMS, a German equivalent of Heta.

“If I look at the latest developments in the courts, I think that is rather unlikely,” Schelling told reporters before a weekly cabinet meeting, referring to another case in which Austria’s bank resolution rules were referred to the European Court of Justice to see if they applied to Heta. (Reporting by Shadia Nasralla; Writing by Francois Murphy; Editing by Maria Sheahan)…

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History of the AHG

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The Ad Hoc Group (the AHG) represents 11 institutions holding senior notes issued by Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank International AG (HAA) of a face value of approximately €2.6bn, which are backed by a statutory guarantee from the Province of Carinthia.  It is the largest association of HETA creditors seeking to recover their investments which are classified under Austrian law as risk-free, gilt edged investments, or so-called mündelsicher (§ 215 ff. ABGB).  The reliance on Carinthia’s statutory guarantee was also reflected in the lower rate of interest on the bonds.

Since March 2015, the AHG has consistently sought to engage in constructive discussions with the Republic of Austria, the Austrian Ministry of Finance, the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA), Carinthia, and their respective financial advisers, to negotiate a consensual solution to HETA’s financial problems; the AHG has been unsuccessful at every juncture.

  • December 2009
    Austrian bank Hypo-Alpe-Adria-Bank International AG (HAA) was nationalised after concerns over a collapse, after suffering heavy losses in central Europe.
  • September 2013
    The European Commission approved a plan for the orderly wind-down of HAA.
  • July 2014
    • With the Hypo special law passed in the Austrian National Assembly in July 2014, the basis for the deregulation and creation of a wind-down entity became effective.
    • HypoAlpeAdria-Sanierungs-Gesetz“ (HaaSanG)  (Hypo Reorganisation Law) (“HaaSanG”) adopted, which voided deficiency guarantees issued by Carinthia on €890m of HAA subordinated debt.
  • November 2014
    The wind-down entity of the HAA operates under the name Heta Asset Resolution AG (“HETA”) since November 2014. HETA is in the RoA’s ownership at 100%. HETA’s responsibility is to manage its assets with the objective to ensure an organized, active and optimized realization.
  • March 2015
    • HETA was found to have a deficit of €7.6bn.
    • The Austrian Minister of Finance Hans-Jörg Schelling discloses that the owner won’t take any further measures after the Financial Market Stability Act.
    • The FMA ordered a 15 month moratorium on the debt securities and liabilities issued by HETA until May 31, 2016.
  • August 2015
    The Austrian Constitutional Court declared HaaSanG ‘unconstitutional’ and repealed it, reinstating the guarantees issued by Carinthia on €890m of HAA subordinated debt and on €800m
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Budget: Heta-Lösung würde Schuldenquote um zwei Prozentpunkte senken

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Wien/Klagenfurt (APA) – Eine Annahme des Anleihenrückkauf-Angebots durch alle Gläubiger der Hypo-Abbaugesellschaft Heta würde die Staatsschuldenquote um mehr als zwei Prozentpunkte senken. Das sagte Nationalbank-Gouverneur Ewald Nowotny am Montag bei der Präsentation der Konjunkturprognose.

Der für heuer prognostizierte Schuldenstand der Republik Österreich sei durch die Kassenbestände der Heta „künstlich hoch“. Die Nationalbank (OeNB) geht in ihrer Prognose theoretisch davon aus, dass die Heta-Schulden konstant bleiben. Für 2016 rechnet die OeNB mit einer Staatsschuldenquote von 84,5 Prozent, 82,2 Prozent werden im Jahr 2017 erwartet und 80,9 Prozent im Jahr 2018.

Wenn die Gläubiger den Schuldenschnitt („Haircut“) inklusive der Nichtauszahlung der Haftungen akzeptieren, würde die Schuldenquote bei 78,5 Prozent im Jahr 2018 liegen, so die Prognose der OeNB.…

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