Austria's top economic news - January 31

Bank Austria and its parent, Italian UniCredit, plan to consolidate their IT and back-office activities in a new company. The service subsidiary will be based in Vienna and employ 2,500. The move aims at reducing the group-wide costs by 5%.
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Wolfgang Auer-Welsbach, the head of collapsed financial group AvW, was sentenced to eight years in prison on accusations of breach of trust and fraud of the company's investors. He will also have to pay up to EUR 500 per person to the investors who filed the suit. The manager initially rejected the accusations but consequently pleaded guilty.

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Troubled IT services provider S&T AG has reached a principle agreement with its creditors over its future refinancing. The package of measures included among others a delay in the payment of bonds due 2011 by one year. The agreement will enable the company to implement the preconditions for a successful restructuring and to successful close the talks with interested investors. 
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Austria's Audit Court has expressed considerable criticism regarding the ever-growing costs on the SkyLink terminal expansion at Vienna Airport. According to the just released court report on the project, the executive board of Vienna Airport has not informed adequately the firm's supervisory board over the critical situation. Between November 2002 and December 2009, the estimated costs for the still unfinished expansion soared to EUR 830m from EUR 402m. However, according to the court, the costs have even continued to swell and including some sideline projects reached EUR 952.39m by March 2010. The report was handled to the prosecutors and may result in the pressing of charges against the involved managers.
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The order backlog of Austria's construction firms totalled EUR 6.1bn at the end of October 2010, down 6.6 on the year, Statistik Austria reported.
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The output of Austria's construction companies decreased 4.1% to EUR 11.7bn between January and October 2010, Statistik Austria said. 
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The turnover of the Austrian industrial and construction sector increased 7% to EUR 20bn in October 2010, the country's statistical office said.