Thomas Kofler, a corporate financier at CA IB Corporate Finance, a subsidiary of Bank Austria Creditanstalt, has been promoted to the managing board of the division to help boost the bank's profile.

Kofler previously ran CA IB's activities in Croatia and Slovenia. He has advised on several mergers and acquisitions in South-Eastern Europe, including playing a leading role in the €876m ($1bn) takeover by Novartis, the Swiss healthcare group, of Lek, a Slovenian pharmaceuticals producer.