Austria's top economic news - February 18

Steel specialist Voestalpine said its net profit soared to EUR 400.3m in the first three quarters of fiscal 2010/11, from EUR 51.6m a year earlier. EBIT skyrocketed to EUR 658.2m from EUR 175.1m. Sales rose 26.2% to EUR 7.937bn. The considerable improvement in results was explained with the strengthened economic conditions, the full capacity utilisation and the focused savings measures. Voestalpine raised its EBIT forecast for full 2010/11 to EUR 850m from EUR 800m a year earlier.
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Donau Versicherung, part of Vienna Insurance Group, raised its premium income 3.8% to EUR 710m in 2010. The company's profit rose 10% to EUR 63.5m, CEO Franz Kosyna told Austria's APA news agency.

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Bank Austria has raised its shareholding in real estate company CA Immo to 16.9% from 11.9% as part of its takeover offer for the company. The bank said the tender bid was completed successfully.
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OMV said it has closed the takeover of the exploration and production business of Pioneer Natural Resources in Tunisia. The Austrian company paid around USD 800m for the assets, plus working capital adjustment of some USD 39.3m.
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Fibre producer Lenzing said it has agreed to divest its plastics filaments business to a consortium led by Global Equity Partners. The purchase price was not disclosed. Via the divestment, Lenzing plans to focus on its core business.
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Troubled OeVAG plans to return EUR 600m from its EUR 1bn state aid by the end of the year, Standard reported. Some EUR 300m will come from OeVAG itself, via the sale of VBI, while the remainder will be raised by the Austrian cooperative banks, the report says.
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Austria's Industrial Producer Price Index rose 4.9% to reach 111.5 pts in December 2010, Statistik Austria said. This was the biggest growth since February 2005.