German online brokerage DAB Bank is to buy parent HypoVereinsbank's Austrian discount broker unit direktanlage.at, in a deal valued at EUR32.3 million.
DAB Bank, also owned by HypoVereinsbank, is expected to issue 6.6 million new shares to pay for direktanlage, at a purchase price based on DAB's EUR4.9 closing share price on Wednesday.
With more than 26,000 customers, EUR729 million in assets under management and 131,000 executed transactions (30 June, 2002), direktanlage says it is on target to break even for 2002.
Matthias Kröner, speaker of the board of management of DAB bank, states: "Direktanlage.at will continue to trade under its well-known name and its existing workforce in Austria. The merger is a further step on our way to reaching market dominance in Europe."