Austria's top economic news - April 8

Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) said it booked a net profit of EUR 1.087bn for 2010, compared to EUR 450m on a pro-forma basis for 2009. The bank was established after the merger of RZB and Raiffeisen International Holding last year. RBI also said its risk provisions almost halved to EUR 1.194bn for 2010. The bank will propose a dividend of EUR 1.05 per share. In addition, RBI said the new bank tax in Austria and Hungary will burden it with EUR 130m for 2011. The bank also projects the non-performing loan situation to ease towards the end of the current year. RBI forecasts the recently announced acquisition of 70% in Polish Polbank to be closed at the end of 2011 or at the start of 2012. The management projects annual synergies of EUR 60m from the transaction. CEO Herbert Stepic declined to confirm that the bank will launch a capital increase in 2011, as expected by many market observers. He also praised the current capital situation at the bank. Furthermore, RBI announced that last year only its Hungarian unit booked losses for the year end.
*
Aluminium group AMAG started trading on the Vienna Stock Exchange with a discount of 10.5% to the issue price of EUR 19 apiece. About 500,000 company's shares changed hands in the first hours of the trade. This has been the first IPO on the Vienna Stock Exchange since 2007.
*
Ernst Malleg and Gerhard Brandl, the insolvency administrator of AvW, have disposed of a 15.86% stake in German IT company Realtech for EUR 6.8m. Thus the proceeds from the divestment of AvW's assets grew to EUR 101.5m.
*
Österreichische Volksbanken AG (ÖVAG) will be examined under the current Europe-wide bank stress tests. The bank will be checked together with Austria's major sector players - Raiffeisen International Bank (RBI) and Erste Group.
*
Rudolf Knünz has reduced his stake in holding company UIAG to 4.45% from 5.92% before. His managing partner, Stefan Pierer, currently controls 5.03% in the company.
*
Austria's total imports stood at EUR 9.23bn for January 2011, up 27.3% year-on-year. The company's exports grew 26.3% to EUR 8.67bn. This resulted in a foreign trade deficit of EUR 560m, Statistik Austria said.