Austria: A legal step forward?
SUPPLEMENT - THE 2009 GUIDE TO PRIVATE EQUITY AND VENTURE CAPITAL - October 01, 2009
Herbst Vavrovsky Kinsky
Address
Dr. Karl Lueger-Platz 5
1010 Vienna
Telephone
+43 1 904 21 80 0
Fax
+43 1 904 21 80 210
Visit Website
The Austrian market is characterised by predominant debt financings. The security and equity capital requirements for such debt financings affected in particular small and medium-sized companies. As those companies don't necessarily have access to capital markets, they face a financing gap which might be closed through equity financing.
Although there was arguably a significant need for private equity and venture capital (PE) in Austria as a consequence of the predominant structure and size of Austrian corporates, it was not until the mid-eighties when an industry began to develop in Austria. This was very late compared to other European countries. Despite dynamic development of the Austrian private equity market starting in the mid-nineties and lasting until recent years, it is still underdeveloped compared to other European countries.
This is demonstrated by Austria remaining at the end of the scale with a percentage of investments as share of the GDP at 0.005%...
The rest of this article is available to subscribers only. Subscribe today for full access to this article.
Alternatively take a free trial, giving you access for 48 hours*.
If you are already a subscriber, please log in below to access the rest of this article.
*some articles may be excluded.