Wolf Theiss advises Erste Group Bank AG as issuer on its issues of Mortgage Pfandbriefe

Wolf Theiss advises Erste Group Bank AG as issuer on its issues of (i) EUR 750,000,000 0.01 per cent. Mortgage Pfandbriefe due 2028 (AT0000A2UXM1) and (ii) EUR 750,000,000 0.50 per cent. Mortgage Pfandbriefe due 2037 (AT0000A2UXN9).

Erste Group Bank AG successfully returned to the covered bond market for the first time since January 2020 and closed the issues of two equally sized series of Mortgage Pfandbriefe (Hypothekenpfandbriefe) (together the “Covered Bonds“) in the aggregate principal amount of EUR 1.5 billion. The Covered Bonds with a coupon of 0.01 per cent. per annum or 0.50 per cent. per annum, respectively, have a tenor of six and a half years or fifteen years, respectively, and were placed with professional clients and eligible counterparties. Each issue of Covered Bonds has a denomination of EUR 100,000 per bond and was rated Aaa by Moody’s. The Covered Bonds are listed on the Official Market (Amtlicher Handel) of the Vienna Stock Exchange (Wiener Börse). The closing took place on 12 January 2022.

The Covered Bonds were placed by Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft, Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, Danske Bank A/S, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale, DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral-Genossenschaftsbank, Frankfurt am Main, Erste Group Bank AG, ING Bank N.V., Landesbank Baden-Württemberg, Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen Girozentrale and UniCredit as joint lead managers and HYPO NOE Landesbank für Niederösterreich und Wien AG as co-lead manager. The banking consortium was advised by Christoph Moser and Angelika Fischer (Schönherr Rechtsanwälte GmbH).

Erste Group Bank AG as issuer was advised by Partner Claus Schneider, Senior Associate Nikolaus Dinhof-Renezeder and Associate Dominik Thill (all Debt Capital Markets) and on tax aspects by Counsel Eva Stadler (Tax).