Austrian economic news in a flash - 11 November 2010

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Vienna Airport said the number of served passengers in October grew 11.4% on the year to 1.828m. Due to the 8.6% growth for the first ten months of 2010, Vienna Airport improved its full-year forecast to 9% increase in the passenger traffic.
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Crane maker Palfinger said it recorded EBIT of EUR 22.4m for the first three quarters of 2010, compared to a loss of EUR 6.1m a year earlier. Sales grew 19.5% to EUR 464.9m. The company projects a sales increase of 20% and considerably positive earnings for full 2010.
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Treibacher Industrieholding, the parent of Treibacher Industrie AG, has bought the 29% stake of collapsed AvW Gruppe in technology company Binder+Co. The stake was worth some EUR 16m, or EUR 14.60 per share.
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Builder Porr said its output decreased 3.9% to EUR 2.04bn in the first three months of 2010. The company's order intake for the period fell 18% to EUR 1.76bn, while the order backlog stood at EUR 2.4bn, down 7%.
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High Tech Industries AG (HTI) said it booked EBIT of EUR 3.3m for the first nine months of 2010, compared to a loss of EUR 21.4m a year earlier. Sales went up 6% to EUR 143.2m. The company forecasts a sales rise to EUR 200m for full 2010, as well as positive EBIT.
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Sweets maker Manner said its sales went down 1.4% to EUR 110.8m in the first three quarters of the year. The decrease was attributed to the weak first quarter. The company also has to fight with high raw material costs, especially those for cacao and hazelnuts. Manner projects a fall in its full-year sales.
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Refractory material maker Rath said it posted EBIT of EUR 867,000 for the first nine months of 2010, compared to a loss of EUR 65,000 a year ago. Sales decreased to EUR 54.48m from EUR 55.88m. The company said it was early for 2011 forecasts and the uncertainties on the markets continued to be huge.
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The Frauenthal holding said its sales increased 17.8% to EUR 395.9m in the first three quarters of the year. The company turned a net profit of EUR 9.3m, compared to a loss of EUR 25.1m in the same period last year. Frauenthal said further it hopes to end 2010 in the black if the economic conditions did not deteriorate considerably in the last quarter.
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Real estate company UBM, part of builder Porr, raised its pretax profit to EUR 7.5m in the first nine months of 2010 from EUR 7.1m a year ago. The increase was due to growth in margins and cost efficiency. Revenue decreased to EUR 173.4m from EUR 205.9m because of reduced project sales.
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Regional utility Vorarlberger Kraftwerke AG (VKW) said its profit fell to EUR 33.3m in the first three quarters of 2010 from EUR 33.3m a year earlier. Sales decreased by EUR 33.7m to EUR 314.7m. VKW projects its full-year profit to be more-or-less comparable to the 2009 one.
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Sports items producer Head said it booked a net loss of EUR 913,000 for the first three quarters of 2010, compared to a profit of EUR 24.4m a year earlier. The company said the 2009 results were boosted by the profits from a bond exchange offer. Sales rose 5.7% to EUR 218.4m in the first nine months of the current year.
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Andreas Treichl, CEO of Erste Group, has sold 25,000 shares in the bank. The manager earned around 838,000 from the transaction.