Austrian Economic News - Week 9-15 Jan

Monday

Petrom, the Romanian subsidiary of oil group OMV, is seeking for crude oil in the Black Sea together with ExxonMobil. The exploration drilling will be carried out for 90 days.

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Construction group Strabag said it has received an order worth EUR 254m for building of 40km of highways in Poland. The construction works are expected to take 27 months.

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EVN and Wien Energie have launched the construction of a new wind park in Marchfeld. The project will cost EUR 27m.

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Knünz Invest Beteiligungs said it had raised its stake in Unternehmens Invest Aktiengesellschaft

(UIAG) to 53.89% as part of its takeover bid for the company. Prior to the launch of the takeover bid, Knünz had owned 50.1%.

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Treibacher Industrieholding, owned by Erhard Schaschl and Franz Rauch, had raised its shareholding in Austria Email AG to 88.88% from 38.8% before. The deal value is estimated at EUR 19m.

Tuesday

Construction materials maker Wienerberger plans to issue a EUR 50m bond with an increase possibility. The maturity will stand at 3.5 years, the company said.

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Jaan Albrecht, the new head of Austrian Airlines (AUA), spoke of the savings measures which the burdened company should start implementing from March. The airline has to save between EUR 200m and EUR 220m this year. Furthermore, AUA failed to reach its target for an operating profit for 2011 and its loss came near the result from 2010, the manager added.

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The Romanian competition authorities have fined Petrom, the local subsidiary of oil and gas group OMV, for illegal talks considering the withdrawal of the Eco Premium fuel from the market. As Petrom is the biggest of the involved companies, it will have the heftiest fine of some EUR 117.1m.

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The Romanian state plans to take over the closed Arpechim refinery of OMV's Petrom. Following the deal, the refinery operations will be resumed and then the site is to be privatised.

Wednesday

Austrian real estate developer CA Immo has completed the construction of the office building Tower 185 in Frankfurt. The building, with its 200 m, will be the fourth highest in Germany, the company said.

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s Wohnbaubank plans to issue mortgage bonds worth EUR 150m in 2012. For 2011 the bank intended EUR 200m in bonds.

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Austrian Airlines (AUA) said it registered an increase of 3.4% in the number of passengers to 11.26m in 2011. The company was especially hit by the political unrest in the Middle East and from the nuclear and tsunami catastrophe in Japan. AUA transported 791,600 passengers in December, up 9% year-on-year.

Thursday

Fruit, stark and sugar group Agrana said its net profit doubled to EUR 129.7m in the first nine months of fiscal 2011/12, compared to a year earlier. Sales grew 20.2% to EUR 1.952bn. The results were positively affected by savings measures and good market conditions. Agrana confirmed its forecast for sales of EUR 2.5bn for full fiscal year and for considerable growth in earnings. 

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Wolfgang Ruttenstorfer, the former CEO of oil and gas group OMV, has been cleared from suspicions on insider trading by a second court instance on Thursday. The accusations were related to the company's withdrawal from Hungarian MOL at the end of March 2009.

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Fibre producer Lenzing said it would go on supplying flame-resistant speciality fibres to the US Army. This remains possible after the recent signing of the National Defense Authorization Act by the US President.

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Skylink, the terminal extension project at Vienna Airport, will start operations at the beginning of June. The terminal, whose construction was saddled by scandals and explosion of costs, will thus be launched several years after initially planned.

Friday

Standard & Poor's (S&P) surprisingly reduced at the end of the week its credit rating on Austria to AA+ from AAA. The move, which affected most of the euro zone, made a considerable blow on the euro exchange rate.

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Beko Engineering & Informatik said its EBIT for fiscal 2010/11 grew to EUR 1.15m from EUR 320,000 a year earlier. Sales increased 8% to EUR 47.1m. CEO Friedrich Hiermayer said he is optimistic for the next 12 to 18 months.

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Oil and gas group OMV plans to divest of its 45% stake in refinery group Bayernoil. The move is part of the company's strategy to scale down its refinery operations.