Austria's top economic news - February 28

Toll specialist Kapsch TrafficCom said its sales grew 74% to EUR 258.5m in the first nine months of fiscal 2010/11. EBIT more than tripled to EUR 23.2m, while net profit fell 22% to EUR 16.8m. The fourth quarter will be marked by the projects in South Africa and Poland and preparations for auctions in Hungary.
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Austria's annual inflation rate grew to 2.4% in January 2011, reaching its highest level since October 2008, Statistik Austria said. The rate was boosted by higher fuel and home costs. The EU-harmonised index rose to 2.5% from 2.2% in December.
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SW Umwelttechnik said its sales rose 12% to EUR 73.8m in 2010. EBIT fell to EUR 1.2m from EUR 1.4m. Pretax loss narrowed to EUR 2.3m from EUR 2.9m. The company projects a light sales increase and considerable earnings improvement in 2011.
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Real estate company Immofinanz said it has divested a retail park in German Castrop Rauxel for EUR 9.8m. The property was bought by a Luxembourg investment fund.
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Utility Verbund and its Turkish partner Sabanci Holding have opened their first wind park in Turkey. A total of EUR 40m were invested in the park, with a capacity of 30 MW.
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Christoph Herbst, interim CEO of Vienna Airport, told WirtschaftsBlatt he aims the company to save an amount in the medium double-digit million range in 2011. Alone the firm will target to cut its costs by between EUR 4m and EUR 5m in the field of consultancy contracts.

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Agrana and Raiffeisen Ware Austria have decided to merge their fruit concentrate subsidiaries Agrana Juice Holding and Ybbstaler Fruit Austria in a new joint venture. Agrana will hold 50.01% in the new entity initially. The new firm is projected to have annual sales of about EUR 250m.
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Holding company Unternehmens Invest AG (UIAG) booked an operating loss of EUR 240,000 for the first quarter of 2010/11. Due to one-off items, the company however posted a net profit of EUR 5.77m.