Austrian Economic News - Week 1-7 Oct

Monday 

The number of unemployed in Austria grew by 5% to 229,025 in September, showing the continuing signs of the economic crisis. The country's unemployment rate thus stood at 4.5% under Eurostat calculations.
Online gaming specialist bwin.party has agreed to sell poker platform Ongame to Amaya Gaming Group for a total of 25m euro. The deal is expected to be closed in the fourth quarter of the year.
Champagne producer Schlumberger plans to spin off its herbal drinks production (including Leibwächter and Gurktaler Alpenkräuter) into a new public limited company.
Erste Österreichische Spar-Casse Privatstiftung envisages to sell up to 14m shares in Erste Group, which will reduce the shareholding of the private foundation to about 20.2%. The divestment will be implemented via an Accelerated Bookbuilt Offering. 

Tuesday

Car maker BMW plans to withdraw the production of its Mini model from Austria and to concentrate it in the UK and the Netherlands. Currently Austro-Canadian contractor Magna is building the model for BMW in Graz.
Sanochemia Pharmazeutika AG said on Tuesday it had entered into a licence agreement with US Katama Pharmaceuticals. The contract is for the clinical research and the exclusive distribution of muscle relaxant tolperisone.Siemens Austria will deliver eight trams of the new Avenio type to the city of Munich. The order volume stands at 30m euro.
Raiffeisen Bank International will open its first ten Raiffeisen branches in Slovakia by the end of the year. The branches will specialise on the retail segment.
Erste Österreichische Spar-Casse Privatstiftung has pocketed some 235m euro from the divestment of 14m shares in Erste Group. Due to high demand, the offer was ended in several hours.
Real estate company Immofinanz is investing some 115m euro in a new retail centre in Poland.

Wednesday

Rating agency Standard & Poor's has confirmed the A- rating on the operational units of Austrian insurer Uniqa. The group's holding company has kept its BBB+ rating. The outlook is "stable".
Fibre producer Lenzing said it had fully acquired Czech pulp specialist Biocel Paskov. So far Lenzing had owned 75% in the Czech firm.
Both Erste Group and Raiffeisen Zentralbank (RZB) have managed to fulfil the increased capital requirements of the European Banking Authority (EBA). Erste Group had a core capital ratio of 9.9% in mid-2012, while RZB registered a ratio of 10%.

Thursday

Klagenfurter Stadtwerke, the utility company of the province of Klagenfurt, said it wants to buy back the shares of leading company Verbund in its subsidiary Energie Klagenfurt (EKG). Verbund bought 49% in EKG in 2005.

Friday

Motorcycle maker KTM AG said Friday it sold 79,117 units in the first nine months of 2012, an increase of 33% on the year. The company's share on the European market came in at 7.3%. KTM predicts sales of over 100,000 for full 2012.
OMV announced it had signed the development and production lease deed for the Latif gas field in the Sindh province of Pakistan. The oil and gas group expects the field to contribute around 6,000 boe/d in 2014.
The shareholders of real estate company Immofinanz AG approved the payment of 0.15 euro as a dividend per share for fiscal 2011/12.