Austrian economic news in a flash - 20.10

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Industrial holding A-Tec announced the launching of an insolvency procedure due to difficulties in bond refinancing and the extremely tough situation at the Australian unit of its AE&E subsidiary. The proceedings will affect only listed holding A-Tec Industries AG and are expected to be completed by January 20. A-Tec intends to offer its bond holders a minimum return rate of 30%. The procedure will be carried out via a new regulation, which aims at a restructuring of the firm and its survival.
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Game developer JoWooD will carry out a capital reduction to EUR 5.47m from EUR 19.15m in order to offset its widening net losses, the company said. The new nominal value of the shares will be EUR 2 instead of EUR 7. Following the move, the company will carry out a stock split at a ratio of two-for-one.
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German utility EnBW will remain a large-scale shareholder in Austrian sector player EVN as its plans to reduce the stake to 9.74% from 35.72% failed. The divestment was called off as the offered price did not represent the internal value of EVN, EnBW said. EVN plans to continue with its intended capital increase of 10%.
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The Austrian Parliament has approved the planned EUR 1bn capital increase at the country's biggest utility Verbund. Austria owns 51% in the company.
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Brick maker Wienerberger wants to buy back to 100% Steinzeug Abwassersysteme GmbH for EUR 34m and thus to widen its pipe system activities. The move is still subject to antitrust approval.
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Refractory material maker RHI envisages to invest EUR 13m in China. Thus, the company's production capacity at the Dalian site will rise by 20% to 270,000 tonnes, RHI said.
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Online bookmaker Bwin has filed with the Austrian watchdog its merger plans with UK PartyGaming. The new entity will be based in Gibraltar and will be listed on the London Stock Exchange.
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Wirtschaftsservice Burgenland AG plans to divest its shareholding in troubled webfreetv.com if the conditions for the sale are favourable, WiBAG executive Peter Schmitl told a news conference. WiBAG is the biggest shareholder of webfreetv.com with a stake of 27.5%.


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