Austria's Top Economic News - Week 6-12 June

Monday

The week started with a good news for Austria's leading utility Verbund. The company confirmed that it may soon start providing electricity to 1.55m clients in Turkey as the bidder which was awarded the supply contract for the region of Antalya, Burdur and Isparta could not fulfil its contractual agreement. 

HTI High Tech Industries AG launched on Monday its latest capital increase. The company envisages to raise EUR 6.64m via the transaction.

The future of insolvent game developer JoWooD seemed secured on Monday as Swedish Wingefors Invest AB had agreed to buy the assets of the Austrian company.

Tuesday

On Tuesday OMV's latest capital increase drew all the attention. The company's capital hike raised about EUR 725m. State holding OeIAG and its partner IPIC have exercised their entire subscription rights in the move. Thus they retained their 50.1% stake in the oil and gas group.

According to media reports, Telekom Austria has been shortlisted for the privatisation of PTK in Kosovo. The deal is estimated at between EUR 300m and EUR 600m.

On Tuesday catering specialist DO & CO said its net profit rose to EUR 15.4m for fiscal 2010/11 from EUR 9.7m a year earlier. Sales increased 20.8% to EUR 426.1m. The executive board will propose a dividend of EUR 0.35 for the year.

Sugar and fruit group Agrana said it has kicked off production of fruit preparations at its site in Egypt. Agrana will hold 51% in the Agrana Nile Fruits joint venture.

On Tuesday it was also revealed that real estate company Immofinanz will seek a second listing on the Warsaw stock exchange next to its primary listing in Vienna.

In addition, Strabag, the country's biggest construction group, announced the winning of a EUR 166m contract for motorway construction in Romania.

Wednesday

On Wednesday Thomas Lingelbach, the newly-appointed CEO of vaccine developer Intercell, revealed the new strategy of the company, which announced several blows in its development programme over the past few months. Among other things, the firm will now aim at a 50% reduction in costs.

Two important takeover news came out in mid-week. First utilities EVN and Wien Energie said they had taken 26% in Verbund Innkraftwerke. The deal price reportedly stood at EUR 350m. Later Telekom Austria said it had agreed with BEWAG over the takeover of the latter's cable TV provider B.net in Croatia for EUR 93m.

On Wednesday evening Kapsch TrafficCom revealed a revenue of EUR 388.6m for fiscal 2010/11, an increase of 80%. The company's EBIT rose to EUR 48.9m from EUR 24.5m. It will propose a dividend of EUR 1, up from EUR 0.75 a year earlier.

Thursday

Thursday was slow in terms of corporate news, with only the divestment of the interior activities of car parts supplier Polytec attracting any real attention. The company agreed to divest the non-core business to Toyota Boshoku Europe.

Friday

At the end of week BKS Bank announced the opening of a new branch in Bratislava, while Immofinanz revealed the full takeover of Warsaw's office building Equator.

Car parts supplier Miba said it had raised its sales by 41.5% to EUR 138.7m in the first quarter of fiscal 2011/12. EBIT rose slightly to EUR 13.6m from EUR 13.5m.

Austrian Airlines, or AUA, reported a 1.1% increase in passenger traffic in May to 1.025 persons. Between January and May, the number of passengers rose 2.7%.