сряда, 31 август 2011 г.

Austria's top economic news - Week 22-28 August

(unless otherwise stated, all currencies are in EUR and comparisons are on a yearly basis)
Monday

Pankl Racing Systems AG said Monday its net profit rose 2% to 2.9m in the first half of 2011, while the EBIT grew 59% to 4.8m. The company's sales grew 15% to 54.9m. The performance was boosted by the excellent development of the car racing sector. Pankl said it continued to expect an increase of between 5% and 10% in sales for full 2011.
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Toll technology specialist Kapsch TrafficCom said its sales rose 103% to 134.7m in the first quarter of its fiscal year. The EBIT soared to 22.2m from 4.8m a year earlier and net profit jumped to 13.9m from 4.5m. The results were influenced positively by project advancements and the expansion via acquisitions of the US business. For the rest of 2011/12 the company hopes to successfully develop its ongoing projects as well as to win new ones.
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Austrian Airlines (AUA) closed the first half of 2011 with an operating loss of 63m and would be not able to achieve its target for a profit for 2011, supervisory board head Stefan Lauer told Austria's APA news agency. According to him, Lufthansa, the German parent of AUA, will however not cancel the long-haul destinations of the national air carrier.

Tuesday

Fibre producer Lenzing said its sales grew 31% to 1.076bn in the first half of the year, due to considerably higher fibre prices and consolidation effects. EBIT soared to 199.2m from 108m, while net profit grew to 145.3m from 77.1m. The company projects sales of between 2.1bn and 2.2bn and EBITDA of between 470m and 500m for full 2011. Lenzing further said it would aim to join the ATX leading index of the Vienna Stock Exchange in September.
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Real estate company ECO Business, part of Conwert, said it slipped to a net loss of 3m in the first half of 2011, from a profit of 9.6m a year earlier due to write downs of 7m. The rental income fell to 23.2m from 28m. The firm focused on re-dimension and optimisation measures in the period.
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Julian Wagner, CEO of Austrian fire fighting vehicle maker Rosenbauer, reportedly has personally met with competitors to discuss illegal price arrangements, Die Welt wrote. The company has confirmed the meetings but said that they concerned only talks over market shares.

Wednesday

SW Umwelttechnik said it had reduced its operating loss to 1.7m in the first half of 2011 from 2.1m a year earlier. Sales fell 7% to 27.8m for the period burdened by problems in Hungary. The company retained its forecast for improvement in operating earnings for 2011.
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Industrial holding Frauenthal announced its sales increased 15.1% to 287.5m in the first six months of the year, while EBIT soared 75.9% to 10.2m. The division Automotive Components benefited from the recovery of the automobile sector and the firm projects continuation of the strong demand in the field for the third quarter.
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Hirsch Maschinenbau, part of machinery group Hirsch Servo, said it had received an order worth millions in Ghana.
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Beko Holding AG said it booked a net profit of 1.2m for the first nine months of its fiscal year, compared to a loss of 720,000 a year earlier. Revenues rose 17% to 41m. The company said it had profited from its new simplified structure.
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UBM Realitätenentwicklung, part of builder Porr, said its EBIT rose 11.8% to 14.2m in the first six months. Revenues however fell 7% to 50.45m. The company plans to focus on home construction in Germany and speciality retail centres in Poland in the next months of the year.

Thursday

Raiffeisen Bank International said Thursday it may consider a capital increase in the next 12 months. The bank also announced a net profit of 615m for the first half of the year, up 30.3%. Operating profit fell 2.2% to 1.23bn. The bank also said that as of the end of June its exposure to the debt ridden European countries - Spain, Italy, Greece, Portugal and Ireland, stood at 3.622bn, of which 2.26bn to Italy.
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Utility EVN said its net profit grew 1.2% to 207.2m in the first three quarters of fiscal 2010/11. Sales fell 0.9% to 2.16bn. The company continues to expect an operating profit on the last year's level and a lower net profit for the full 2010/11. EVN plans to invest up to 800m by 2012 for boosting the share of its renewable energy to 50%.
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Real estate company CA Immo said its net profit soared to 21.1m in the first six months of 2011, from 5m a year earlier. Rental income went up from 82.7m to 127.5m. The results were boosted by the consolidation of Europolis. The firm said it was certain that the target for divestments worth 300m and 350m for full 2011 will be achieved.
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Österreichischen Volksbanken AG (ÖVAG) announced it was hit by write-downs on Greek bonds worth 24m and therefore its net profit fell to 0.5m in the first six months from 14.6m a year earlier. By the end of 2011, ÖVAG plans to sell its eastern European subsidiary VBI as well as its stake in Raiffeisen Zentralbank (RZB). Burdened by the write-downs and other one-offs the bank however would not be able to achieve its target for above 100m profit in the group for 2011.
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Flughafen Wien said its net profit stood at 23.5m in the second quarter of 2011, up from 19.2m a year earlier. The company decided to completely write down its participation in the Friedrichshafen airport during the period.

Friday

Julian Wagner, CEO of fire-fighting vehicle maker Rosenbauer, will step down from his post as of the end of September. He will be followed by Dieter Siegel on the top. Wagner, who has headed Rosenbauer for 43 years, was accused over the last weeks of meetings for illegal price fixing with competitors.
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The Korneuburg prosecutors have cancelled the proceedings against Vienna Airport's CEO Ernest Gabmann and businessman Rakesh Sardana on suspicion of breach of trust. The prosecutors found no evidence for continuation of the investigations triggered by an anonymous signal and a media report.
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Crane maker Palfinger said it had completed the takeover of Russian sector company INMAN. No financial details were given.
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At the same time, the saga with the corruption suspicions around Telekom Austria continued with a full force on Friday. The affair is becoming more and more complicated and I've got no time to dwell in details. After all, it's enough that I'm a client of their Bulgarian subsidiary...



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