Austria's top economic news - March 2

Verbund, Austria's biggest utility, said its net profit fell 37.8% year-on-year to EUR 400.8m in 2010. EBIT decreased 20.5% to EUR 828.5m. The results were burdened by reduced hydropower potential, lower wholesale prices and one-off costs. Shareholders will get EUR 0.55 per share as dividend, compared to EUR 1.25 a year earlier. Sales fell 5% to EUR 3.3bn. Verbund projects unchanged earnings for 2011 if the hydropower conditions remain average. The dividend policy of a payout of 45% to 50% will be kept.
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Technology group Binder + Co AG said its sales rose slightly to EUR 63.25m in 2010 from EUR 63.13m a year earlier. EBIT grew to EUR 7.22m from EUR 6.66m. The company registered a considerable increase in order intake from the start of the second half of the year.
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Brewery Ottakringer Brauerei said it has raised its prices due to the high raw material costs. The company also announced it sold 616,300 hectolitres of bier in 2010, up 0.7%. Mineral water unit Vöslauer reported 2.5m hectolitres sales, an increase of 4.6%.
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The ATX committee of the Vienna Stock Exchange said it will include the shares of real estate companies Immofinanz AG, CA Immobilien Anlagen AG and Conwert Immobilien Invest SE in the ATX main index of the bourse. At the same time, the stock of bwin, Flughafen Wien and Mayr-Melnhof will be excluded from the index.