Austria's top economic news - March 15

Austrian Post AG raised its net profit by 48.5% on the year to EUR 118.7m for 2010. The company will propose a dividend of EUR 1.60 per share, up from EUR 1.50 before. EBIT grew 5% to EUR 156.9m, while sales edged down 0.2% to EUR 2.357bn. Post AG projects an increase in sales of between 1% to 2% for the current year. The company expects the share of its letter business to continue declining, while that of parcel deliveries and logistics to go on growing. Post AG's own postal office network will continue shrinking, while that of its partners will expand.
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The merger of Bwin with UK PartyGaming has been entered in Austria's trade register, Bwin said. The merger of the two online bookmakers will take effect as of March 31. The new entity, under the name of bwin.party, will be registered in Gibraltar. Consequently the shares of Bwin will cease trading on the Vienna Stock Exchange after March 25.
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Siemens Austria will seek to grow at a pace higher than the GDP development in the countries it is active in 2011, CEO Wolfgang Hesoun said. For Austria this means that the company is expected to grow by above 2%. According to the manager, the main problems will result from the reduced state investments in the current year. Siemens Austria will also target to become a competence centre for its parent in terms of biotechnology.
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Frauenthal Holding plans to issue a corporate bond worth EUR 75m, with an option for an increase, in the first six months of the year. Raiffeisen Bank International AG and Erste Group will act as joint lead managers for the issue.
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Austria's construction cost index rose 3.7% on the year to 102 points in February 2011, Statistik Austria said. On a monthly basis, the index went up 0.3%.