Austrian Corporate & Econ News - 7 - 13 Jan

Monday

Laakman Holding Ltd and T&F Tax and Finance SA have acquired 9.4% in Austrian fund manager C-Quadrat Investment AG. In 2012 the Austrian firm bought UK sector player BCM from Laakman Holding, paying 30% of the purchase price in stock.
The B&C Industrial Holding and Linz-based Oberbank will unite their shares in aluminium specialist AMAG and therefore plan to file a mandatory takeover offer for the entire company. The partners will offer EUR 20.81 per share plus dividend for 2012 and will not target a squeeze-out or a complete takeover. B&C currently owns 29.99% in AMAG and Oberbank has 5.01%.

Tuesday

Telekom Austria said on Tuesday it expects its 2013 revenue to be about EUR 4.1bn, compared with the projected EUR 4.2bn for 2012. The company forecasts that its business will continue to be affected by the tough competition, regulatory measures, the economic crisis and currency-related risks. It projects a dividend for both 2012 and 2013 of EUR 0.05 per share. Telekom Austria plans to focus on the mobile phone markets in Austria, Bulgaria and Croatia in 2013.
Porr Umwelttechnik, part of Austrian builder Porr, has acquired the brown coal power plant Voitsberg, formerly part of the A-Tec group of Mirko Kovats. The facility will be thus dismantled in 18 months. 

Wednesday

Austrian flyniki, subsidiary of Air Berlin, transported 3.74m passengers in 2012, up 6.3% on the year. The company's capacity grew 3.9% and the seat load factor by 1.8 percentage points.
Austrian holding company Unternehmens Invest AG, or UIAG, ended fiscal 2011/12 with a profit from ordinary operations of EUR 2.03m, compared with EUR 1.98m in 2010/11. The management will offer the payment of EUR 0.20 in dividend per share.
Real estate developer UBM Realitätenentwicklung has taken the 50% stake of its partner Warimpex in the Angelo hotel in Berlin. UBM plans to invest about EUR 50m in the expansion of the four-star hotel.
Oil and gas group OMV, together with its partners Statoil and ConocoPhillips will invest EUR 4.4bn in the further development of the Aasta Hansteen gas field in the Norwegian Sea. OMV holds 15% in the project and therefore will invest some EUR 600m. 

Thursday

Sugar group Agrana announced that its sales grew 22.4% on the year to EUR 2.39bn in the first nine months of fiscal 2012/13 thanks to good performance of the sugar and fruit segments. Net profit went up 6.9% to EUR 138.6m. For full 2012/13 Agrana projects sales of over EUR 3bn and a high price level. The company added that it is still interested in the takeover of sugar refineries in the western Balkans.
Machinery maker Andritz has received an order for the delivery of a biomass boiler plant in Sweden. The launch of the plant is planned for the third quarter of 2015.
The members of the Shah Deniz gas consortium have agreed to the option of getting 50% in the Nabucco gas pipeline project. Nabucco and Shah Deniz also reached an agreement on the joint financing of the project.
Austrian construction firms Alpine, Porr and Gebrüder Haider have received an order from motorway operator Asfinag for the S10 highway.
Austria's cartel authorities approved the acquisition of parts of eight hydropower plants along the Inn by Verbund. The plants are owned by German sector player E.On. In return, Verbund will transfer its stake in Turkish joint venture Enerjisa.

Friday

Austrian motorcycle producer KTM announced that its 2012 revenue grew by 16% on the year to EUR 610m. The company sold 107,142 motorcycles, an increase of 32%.
Fire-fighting vehicle manufacturer Rosenbauer said it has lost an order worth EUR 33m in Brazil. This would affect the 2012 results with some EUR 3.1m.
Dutch Heineken plans to relocate its CEE-headquarters from Vienna to Amsterdam, Oberösterreichische Nachrichten reported on Sunday. The change is not so dramatic, the paper quoted Markus Liebl, the CEO of local Heineken unit, Beau Union.