Austria's top economic news - April 11

The shares of vaccines maker Intercell collapsed on Monday by above 30.44% after a news that the enrollment for the clinical trial for an investigational vaccine for the prevention of the Staphylococcus aureus infection should be suspended. According to market observers, investors have reacted too hastily on the news.
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Erste Bank will take further 56.2% in factoring specialist Intermarket from Polish BRE Bank. Erste currently owns 22.4% in Intermarket. The Polish and Czech units of Intermarket will be transferred to BRE in the future.
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Volksbank AG (ÖVAG) plans to return only the stipulated by the contract with the state amount of state aid by June 2011. In detail, the troubled bank will pay back some EUR 300m of the EUR 1bn in state support.
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Boosted by its activities in life insurance, Generali's premium income grew 2.5% to EUR 2.479bn in Austria in 2010. Life insurance rose 3.7%, indemnity - 0.7% and health - 3.7%.
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Michael Spallart, CEO of Mayr-Melnhof Holz, will target EUR 1bn sales for the company in the next years. However, currently the firm is on a consolidation path, he told WirtschaftsBlatt. The timber specialist sees 10% rise in sales for 2011. Mayr-Melnhof Holz envisages growth both organically and via acquisitions.
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Austrian Airlines (AUA) said the number of passengers fell 2.4% to 797,500 in March 2011, due to the unrest in North Africa and the natural disasters in Japan. For the first quarter, the Lufthansa subsidiary serviced 2.1m passengers, down 1% on the year. The seat-load factor stood at 70.6% in March.
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The number of new vehicles registered in Austria rose 15.4% to 109,586 in the first three months of 2011. Passenger cars registrations went up 15.7% to 87,865, Statistik Austria said. The number of new vehicles registered in March rose 6.9% to 48,080.