Austria's top economic news - January 27

Sanochemia Pharmazeutika AG said its sales decreased 8.3% year-on-year to EUR 27.1m in fiscal 2009/10. The EBIT loss came in at EUR 1.3m, down from EUR 4.6m a year earlier. The company narrowed its operating costs due to efficient cost management and restricted procurement policy. Sanochemia predicts an increase in sales and improvement in earnings in the current fiscal year.
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update software AG said its sales decreased 11.9% to EUR 27.6m in 2010 due to a change of the company's business model into a software as a service provider. The EBIT, adjusted for one-off items, came in at a loss of EUR 0.7m, compared to a profit of EUR 1.2m a year earlier. update predicts sales of EUR 31m and zero EBIT profit for 2011.
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Utility EVN plans to focus on consolidation and expansion into new markets in the next one to two years. Newly-appointed CEO Peter Layr said that the company will massively widen its renewable energy activities. The volume of alternative energy should rise to 4.5 TWh by 2020 from 1.5 TWh currently.
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Erste Bank plans to start an initiative concerning the longer opening hours of Austrian banks, executive Peter Bosek. Usually the bank offices work on week days between 8 in the morning and 3 in the afternoon.
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Vienna's prosecutors have raided the houses of Wolfgang and Helmut Fellner in connection with suspicion on breach of trust related to the Immofinanz case. The case concerns a sale of real estate between a company of Fellner and Immofinanz. The prosecutors try to find out whether the property was not sold at a too favourable price.
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Raiffeisen Bank International successfully placed a EUR 1bn unsecured bond, which was oversubscribed for several hours. The interest rate was set at 3.625%, with a maturity of three years.
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Teak Holz International turned an EBIT of EUR 3.5m for fiscal year 2009/10 due to a positive evaluation of its teak forests. Sales rose to EUR 1.2m from EUR 0.8m a year earlier.
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Austrian takeover commission said that state holding OeIAG would have to file a takeover bid if its stake in Telekom Austria exceeds the 30% threshold. The holding asked the commission for a statement as Telekom Austria plans to repurchase shares, which may boost the shareholding of OeIAG to more than 30%.
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Erste Bank will have to pay EUR 140m as bank taxes per year in Austria, manager Thomas Uher told journalists. The bank would aim to keep its costs strictly under control in order to offset this additional burden.
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The court of first instance in Vienna has found Wolfgang Ruttenstorfer, CEO of oil and gas group OMV, innocent in the suspicions of insider trading. The accusations were raised after the manager bought OMV shares days before the company announced its withdrawal from Hungarian sector player MOL. According to the judge however the stock was bought as part of Ruttenstorfer's remuneration package. The prosecutors plan to object the decision.