Bawag Malta Bank Ltd, the Maltese subsidiary of the Austrian Bawag P.S.K. Group, is celebrating its first anniversary on the island with an 80 per cent increase in its balance sheet since the end of last year.
Managing director Otto Karasek said the accounts for the first six months of this year showed that the bank's balance sheet had increased this year to €1.1 billion, compared with €620 million for the year ending 2003.
Half-yearly profits before tax exceeded €8 million in the first semester of 2004, compared to €0.6 million in the short business year of 2003.
The bank, he said, had now upgraded its staff to six employees, four of them Maltese.
Dr Karasek said Bawag Malta Bank last July joined the Medium Term Note programme of the Bawag P.S.K. Group. This programme enabled the bank in Malta to issue bonds on the international bond markets with a standard documentation.
The Austrian BAWAG P.S.K. Group is the fourth largest banking group in Austria with a balance-sheet total of more than €55 billion and an equity capital of more than €3.13 billion. It was the first international banking organisation to move to Malta after the Maltese opted to join the €uropean Union. In fact, according to group chief executive officer Johann Zwettler the decision was made following the referendum on EU membership.
BAWAG Malta Bank chairman Francis Vassallo said that with €500 million, the bank was the largest capitalised bank in Malta. He said the group took Malta very seriously. "This operation in Malta is highly capitalised but the risk is considered to be low because of political stability and the security engendered by membership in the EU. These have been the crucial points that the bank considered in its preliminary analysis.
"The success achieved after the first 12 months of operations goes to the credit of the BAWAG Group's long term vision and to Malta's creditable financial services sector," he said.
The bank yesterday evening marked its anniversary with a piano concert by renowned Austrian artist Paul Gulda at the Manoel Theatre. Mr Gulda and his Boesendorter grand piano arrived in Malta in the morning.
Proceeds from the concert are to be donated to Sir Paul Boffa Hospital.