Austria's Top Economic News - Week 23-29 May

Monday

Monday was slow in terms of corporate news. In the morning Austrian biggest construction group Strabag said it is intensifying its wind power activities in the North Sea. To this end, the firm will acquire 51% in two holding companies which will develop, build and operate offshore wind power facilities. 

According to a report of Standard, the country's flag carrier Austrian Airlines (AUA) booked a loss of EUR 60m for the first three months of the year. This will prevent the company from achieving its target of a zero operating loss for full 2011, the daily added.

Tuesday

On Tuesday CA Immobilien Anlagen said its first-quarter results were positively affected by the takeover of Europolis. Thus the firm's rental income grew 52.6% to EUR 63.7m, while net profit went up 59.9% to EUR 52.8m. In the morning, the firm also said it has agreed to sell two shopping centres in the Czech Republic.

Telekom Austria appeared twice in Tuesdays news, with Standard reporting that there were prosecutors' raids in its subsidiary Mass Response in the previous week. Earlier, BörseExpress wrote that due to currency devaluations, Telekom Austria's Belarus unit Velcom could be hit by considerable write-downs.

Among the takeover news, Strabag announced it is buying five subsidiaries of Nimab in Sweden, while Gerald Schwieghofer is expected to have placed the highest bid for the insolvent Swiss plant of Mayr-Melnhof Holz.

Rosenbauer, maker of fire fighting vehicles, said on Tuesday its first-quarter EBIT fell 15% to EUR 107.3m and its sales went down 6% to EUR 107.3m. 

Wednesday

After OMV revealed last week capital increase plans, the company said on Wednesday it also plans to issue a hybrid bond worth EUR 750m. The hybrid notes will start trading on the Vienna Stock Exchange as of June 3. The proceeds from the measures will be used for refinancing of the implemented last year acquisitions in Turkey and Tunisia.

The financial figures season continued with KTM Power Sports, which reported a fall of EUR 3.2m in net profit to EUR 0.2m in the first quarter. The results were burdened by higher production costs. Sales, however, grew by EUR 10.6m to EUR 119.6m.

Uniqa, one of the biggest insurers in Eastern Europe, said its premium income grew 3% to EUR 1.8bn. Net profit went up 17.2% to EUR 27m. The company projects a further improvement in the results for full 2011.

Saying the market conditions in CEE continue to be difficult, SW Umwelttechnik announced an EBIT loss of EUR 2.5m for the first quarter of 2011, compared to EUR 2.9m a year earlier. Sales rose slightly to EUR 8.7m from EUR 8.3m.

OECD said on Wednesday it expects the Austrian economy to grow by 2.9% in 2011 and by 2.1% in 2012.

Among the bond news, Strabag said it has successfully placed a bond worth EUR 175m, while Warimpex registered proceeds of around EUR 16.8m from its convertible bond in Warsaw.

Thursday

Flughafen Wien AG said on Thursday its net profit in the first quarter of 2011 rose 4.8% to EUR 19.8m, while sales grew 6.9% to EUR 131.5m. The company confirmed that it plans to launch the operations of the controversial Skylink terminal expansion in the first half of 2012.

Regional utility EVN revealed a net profit of EUR 184m for the first half of fiscal 2010/11, a fall of 11.7%. The company said the results were burdened by high write-downs, especially in the business in Bulgaria. Sales for the period remained almost unchanged at EUR 1.63bn. For full 2010/11 EVN expects a lower net profit than a year earlier.

Raiffeisen Bank International announced it is starting to feel the ease of the financial crisis and reported a non-performing-loan-rate of 8.6% for the first three months of the year. Net profit fell 19.1% to EUR 270m burdened by tax effects, while pretax profit grew 3.3% to EUR 405m.

Teak Holz International also released financial figures on Thursday. The company said its EBIT in the first half of fiscal 2010/11 fell to EUR 5.4m from EUR 6m a year earlier due to currency effects. Revenues, however, went up to EUR 686,000 from EUR 255,000. 

Friday

Real estate company Warimpex announced on Friday its net loss widened to EUR 3m in the first quarter of 2011, compared to EUR 656,000 a year earlier. Revenues remained stable at EUR 21.09m. The management of the firm however said it was optimistic for full 2011.

Wiener Privatbank SE, one of the smaller listed banks in Austria, said its net profit fell to EUR 0.32m in Q1 2011 from EUR 0.93m for Q1 2010. The result was, however, positively affected by one-offs a year ago, the bank said.

Beko Holding AG revealed a fall in its EBIT-loss to EUR 0.1m from EUR 1.1m a year earlier. Sales went up 19% to EUR 26.7m.

Over the weekend software specialist Fabasoft reported an operating loss of EUR 300,000 for fiscal 2010/11, compared to a profit of EUR 2.3m a year earlier. Sales went down 10% to EUR 21.2m.

Among the non-results news, Italian ENI was reported to have agreed to sell its stake in gas transportation pipeline Trans Austria Gasleitung (TAG) to Italian state-owned bank Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP). 

And finally, according to a report of WienerZeitung, Czech-Slovak investment group Penta is interested in the takeover of collapsed A-Tec, the business empire of Mirko Kovats.