Austrian Economic News - Week 28 May - 3 Jun

Monday - Public Holiday

Tuesday

Real estate company conwert Immobilien SE said its profit after taxes decreased to EUR 2.4m for the first three months of the year from EUR 6m a year earlier due to reduced real estate divestments. Sales fell by 28.1% to EUR 91.2m. The company retained its forecast for full 2012.

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Teak Holz International AG (THI) said its EBIT fell to a loss of EUR 160,000 in the first half of fiscal 2011/12, compared with a profit of EUR 5.41m a year earlier. Revenue shrank to EUR 98,000 from EUR 686,000. The results were burdened by the volatile dollar-euro exchange rate.

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Troubled ÖVAG announced a pretax profit of EUR 38.9m for the first quarter of 2012, compared with EUR 59.2m a year earlier. However, as the company sold its Volksbank International (VBI) subsidiary in February, the results cannot be compared on an annual basis. The Romanian unit burdened the three-month result with a loss of EUR 7m.

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Plant builder Andritz announced a voluntary takeover bid for German metal press producer Schuler AG. The Austrian company has already secured 38.5% and is offering EUR 20 per share for the remainder.

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US Century Casinos, listed in Vienna, has agreed on a USD 27m loan with Bank of Montreal (BMO). The sum will be used for the repayment of an already existing loan and for future projects.

Wednesday

Austrian steel group Voestalpine said its net profit decreased by 30.5% to EUR 413.3m in fiscal 2011/12. EBIT went down to EUR 704.2m from EUR 984.8m burdened by cartel proceedings in Germany. Turnover, however, went up by 10.1% to EUR 12.058bn. The company will retain its dividend payment unchanged.

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C.A.T. oil announced a net profit of EUR 2.5m for the first quarter of 2012, compared with a loss of EUR 1m a year earlier. Sales grew by EUR 23.5m to EUR 75.3m. The company expects demand for its services to continue to be high by the end of 2012.

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Builder Porr received a contract for the rehabilitation of a 45-long railway stretch in Poland. Porr's offer stands at EUR 45.6m.

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Vienna Airport will name its latest terminal, to be opened on Friday, Check In 3. So far the terminal was known as Skylink. 

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Power company Verbund has divested its 45% stake in Gletscherbahnen Kaprun AG (GBK) to Kapruner Tourismus Holding GmbH.

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Regional utility EVN plans to buy back by the end of 2012 up to 1m of its shares. The move aims to improve trade with EVN's stock.

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HTI High Tech Industries AG closed the first three months of the year with a loss of EUR 4.3m, compared with a profit of EUR 0.8m a year earlier. Sales decreased to EUR 46.4m from EUR 53.2m. For full 2012 the company sees a breakeven result.

Thursday

Construction group Strabag said its operating loss grew by 13% to EUR 164.66m in the first quarter of the year. Net loss widened by 28% to EUR 159.14m. Sales edged down by 1% to EUR 2.193bn. The company, however, reported a record-high order backlog.

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Machinery producer Hirsch Servo AG reported an operating loss of EUR 3m for the first three quarters of fiscal 2011/12, compared with EUR 0.34m a year earlier. Sales decreased by EUR 5.8m to EUR 61.1m. The negative performance was attributed to the restrained investment behaviour.

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Lower Austria's energy utility EVN said its turnover rose by 3.8% to EUR 1.68bn in the first six months of its fiscal year, thanks to the cold weather conditions. The net profit grew by 13.6% to EUR 209.1m. For full 2011/12 the company forecasts a net profit at last year's level.

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Technology group Andritz has secured further 10% in German Schuler. Since the launch of its takeover offer, the Austrian company has got hold of 48.5% in the metal press producer.
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Telekom Austria has filed for approval with the country's competition authorities the planned takeover of Yesss, a subsidiary of Orange. 

Friday

Pankl Racing Systems AG has secured a EUR 20m credit to finance its growth. The sum will be used also for a repay of an already existing loan.
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Lighting producer Zumtobel expects a difficult 2012/13 fiscal year, CEO Harald Sommerer told WirtschaftsBlatt. Still the company does not expect to end the year with an operating loss.

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The number of unemployed in Austria went up by 4.4% to 231,077 in May. Under the country's own calculation methodology, its unemployment rate stands at 6.2%.

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Technology group Andritz has acquired further 5% in German metal press producer Schuler. Thus, the Austrian firm has secured a majority of 53.5% in its takeover target.

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Real estate developer Conwert plans to issue a corporate bond worth at least EUR 50m and with a maturity of 5 years. Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) and UniCredit Bank Austria will lead manage the issue.

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Industrial group Frauenthal has completed the divestment of its catalyst division to Japanese Ibiden. The sale price stood at EUR 51m.
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Some 120 pilots left Austrian Airlines (AUA) after its decision to transfer the staff to subsidiary Tyrolean. A total of 221 flight attendants also decided to file resignations.