Vienna International Professional Services Industry News

Read the latest headlines about developments in the international service industry in Vienna and Austria

RBI Could Raise More Than € 3bn

The Austrian bank prepares for issuing up to 97.75 million new shares. The company has not yet set a timetable for redemption of capital injected by the state.

June 8, 2011

Stable PIGS-Exposure of Austrian Banks

The last quarter of 2010 has brought only minor changes in the total amount of lending to the four countries in southern Europe by Austrian banks.

June 6, 2011

Raiffeisen Not Interested in Hypo

The Austrian bank group is currently expanding in Poland but it is not going to bid for Hypo Alpe Adria as an acquisition “would not make sense”.

June 6, 2011

Standard & Poor's Confirm 'A' Rating for Uniqa Group

The Austrian insurance group’s rating was confirmed. Free float will be raised to 49% in the course of a capital increase.

June 3, 2011

Charges against Former Board Members of BayernLB

Accusations relating to the acquisition of the Austrian Hypo Group: breach of duty, embezzlement of bank funds.

June 3, 2011

UniCredit and Raiffeisen Seek to Broker Bulgaria's EVN Stake Sale

Bulgaria is going to sell its minority stake in an electricity distributor operated by the Austrian energy company.

June 3, 2011

CA Immo Starts Work on Shopping Center in Frankfurt

The Austrian real estate group and its joint venture partner invest € 360m into the project. The opening will take place in fall 2013.

June 1, 2011

Hypo Alpe Adria to Sell its Italian Subsidiary

The Carinthian bank intends to divest its operations in the neighboring country. The subsidiary achieved a profit of € 10.82m in 2010.

June 1, 2011

Immofinanz Sells Office and Retail Property in Vienna

The Austrian real estate group sold a property located at Simmeringer Hauptstraße in Vienna to HIH Global Invest GmbH for € 29.2m.

May 30, 2011

Sberbank Targeting RBI

The Russian bank intends to expand its business to Kazakhstan and the Baltic countries. Both companies denied speculations about a potential capital injection.

May 30, 2011

Warimpex: First-Quarter Loss Widens

The Austrian real estate company’s loss increased from € -0.7m to € -3.0m in the first quarter of 2011. EBIT fell from € 2.9m to € -0.3m.

May 27, 2011

Uniqa Records Premium Growth in All Regions and Segments

The Austrian insurance group increased its IFRS premiums written by 3.0% to € 1.8bn in the first quarter of 2011. The group profit grew by 17.2% to € 27m.

May 25, 2011

Fitch Upgrades Individual Ratings of Austrian Banks

The “A” rating of the big Austrian banks has been confirmed. The individual rating of Erste, RBI and Bank Austria was upgraded.

May 25, 2011

CA Immo: Initial Consolidation of Europolis Prompts Sharp Rise in Earnings

The figures for the first quarter of 2011 show a strong rise in earnings following the inclusion of Europolis into the consolidated accounts of the Austrian real estate group.

May 25, 2011

CA Immo Sold Two Shopping Centers in the Czech Republic

The Austrian real estate group and a Czech investor agreed on the sale of two malls for an amount of € 96m.

May 24, 2011

Cheuvreux Closing Its Office in Vienna

The French investment bank is closing down its office in Vienna after three years. This has been confirmed by analyst Alfred Reisenberger.

May 20, 2011

Conwert Announces Strong Growth in Revenues in the First Quarter of 2011

The Vienna-based real estate company records a good business development and a 24% increase in EBIT.

May 20, 2011

Erste CEO Aims to Repay State Capital Before End-June

The Austrian bank is negotiating the terms of refunding € 1.2bn for which it currently pays 8% interest per year.

May 19, 2011

ÖVAG: Strong Provisional Results for Q1 2011

Österreichische Volksbanken-AG Group (VBAG) expects a quarterly result of € 32m. The AGM concludes the combination of VBAG and Investkredit.

May 19, 2011

Atrium: 50% Decline in Pre-Tax Profit

Despite a growing rental income, the real estate company’s profit before taxation decreased from € 46.3m to € 26.4m.

May 18, 2011

VIG Is Staying on Course in the 1st Quarter of 2011

Group premiums went up by 2.9% to more than € 2.6bn. Profit increased by 7.0% to € 142.8m.

May 17, 2011

Strong Growth rates for BAWAG P.S.K. Insurance

BAWAG P.S.K. Versicherung AG was able to get into the Top-Ten group of Austrian life insurance companies for the first time, due to its growth in 2010.

May 14, 2011

Bank Austria Starts the Year with Net Profit of € 341m

Operating profit up by 8 per cent to € 851 m compared with Q1 2010, driven by strong revenue trend in commercial banking business and flat cost development

May 14, 2011

Declining Sales at UBM

The Austrian real estate company hat do report a decline in sales of 15%. However, profits rose slightly.

May 13, 2011

Expansion Plans at Erste Group and Raiffeisen

RBI is drawn increasingly to the Czech Republic, while the Erste Group focuses on the Polish banking market.

May 13, 2011

Strong Decline in Eco Business Sales and Earnings

The net result was positive with € 1.1m, but it fell in comparison with the same period of the previous year by 68%.

May 13, 2011

Raiffeisen Insurance Grows

Raiffeisen Versicherung, part of the UNIQA Group achieved increases in almost all divisions, with a total premium volume of € 989m.

May 13, 2011

German IVG is also Active in Austria Now

IVG Immobilien AG (IVG), the largest German real estate fund company, acquired the Austrian Hypo Real Invest in January 2011, changing its name to IVG Austria AG, with headquarters in Vienna.

May 12, 2011

Immofinanz Closes Acquisition in Moscow

The Austrian real estate group takes over 100% of the GoodZone.

May 11, 2011

Radovan Jelasity appointed CEO of Erste Bank Hungary

Radovan Jelasity (43) will join Erste Bank Hungary as of 1 June 2011. Subsequent to the approval of the respective Hungarian authorities, he will be appointed Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

May 10, 2011

UniCredit Leasing Still Number 1 in Austria's Leasing Market

With an increase of 43 per cent in the new business volume to €763m and a market share of 13.3 per cent, UniCredit is the clear market leader in Austria in 2010 again

May 10, 2011

RBI Joint Bookrunner for € 1.75bn Bond

The bond, which is issued by Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, is the second largest EUR-denominated senior unsecured issue by an Italian bank in 2011

May 10, 2011

Raiffeisen International Bank Intends to Get Further Involved in Poland

After the purchase of the Polbank in February, the Austrian RBI seems to be interested now in the Polish DZ Bank. Its chances are however considered to be low.

May 10, 2011

Atrium Strengthens Polish Portfolio

Atrium European Real Estate announces that it has completed the acquisition of the Promenada Shopping Centre (“Promenada”) in Warsaw, Poland for €171 m from Carpathian PLC.

May 9, 2011

Profit Decline for C-Quadrat

Strong increase in management fees from € 7.6 m to € 11.5 m (+52 %). Net profit amounts to € 1.0 m.

May 9, 2011

Contradictions Regarding Expenditure for Bank Package

According to Eurostat, € 1.4bn more were spent on bank assistance than the corresponding revenues. The Ministry of Finance contradicts this.

May 7, 2011

ÖVAG in the Black Again

The central institution of the Austrian Volksbanken was able to achieve a profit of € 67.6m in 2010 after losses for € 24.5m reported in 2009.

May 6, 2011

Immofinanz takes over 100% of Zagreb’s Grand Centar

Immofinanz acquired the remaining 20% stake in the Grand Centar in Zagreb through its subsidiary Immoest Allegro. This stake was previously held by Generali Immobilien AG.

May 5, 2011

Moderate Premium Growth for Merkur Versicherung

Record premium increase of 22.7% in the accident insurance division. Continued upward trend in South East Europe: Merkur increases its market share in Bosnia and Herzegovina to 29.3%.

May 4, 2011

Funds are Considered as a Suitable Old-Age Provision for many Austrians

The majority of Austrian fund owners rate investment funds as a suitable old-age provision, according to the result of a recent population-representative study of AXA Investment Managers.

May 4, 2011

Austria's Insurance Industry is Optimistic

The Austrian insurance industry showed premium increases in all sectors in 2010, with premium income rising by 2.0% to € 16,748bn.

May 4, 2011

Erste Group Launches Rising Markets Indices

Erste Group launches Rising Markets Indices for bonds and equities focusing on high-opportunity countries. Country selection based on criteria such as GDP growth, population growth, anti-corruption measures and standard of living.

May 3, 2011

Immofinanz Strives for Presence in Russia

The Austrian real estate group plans to expand its activities further through the purchase of shopping centers in Moscow.

May 3, 2011

VIG Re: Significant Improvements in Results

The premium volume of the Czech subsidiary of the Vienna International Group rose by 9.1% to € 280.6m.

May 3, 2011

Strong Earnings Growth for Hypo Steiermark

The operating profit of Hypo Steiermark rose to 21.5 million euro, more than doubling the previous year’s result.

April 30, 2011

UNIQA Records Strong Growth in Premiums and Profit in 2010

Premiums up 8.4% in the Group to a total of €6,224 m. Life insurance is the growth driver with an increase of 13.1%

April 29, 2011

Raiffeisen Postpones Stock Exchange Plans

The banking group has to postpone for two or three years the IPOs of the agricultural holdings NÖM and LLI planned for 2011.

April 29, 2011

Strabag Reports Stable Results

Revenues of the Austrian construction company decline slightly. Earnings per share show a plus of 8 % to € 1.53 – Management Board proposes a dividend per share of € 0.55.

April 28, 2011

Erste Group Reports Small Profit Increase

Erste Group increases Q1 2011 net profit to € 260.6 m on lower risk costs, despite negative impact from banking taxes.

April 28, 2011

Decline in Profits for Wiener Privatbank

The profits of the Privatbank fell by 34% in 2010. The bank reported an equity ratio of 48% on the 2010 balance sheet date (31 December 2009: 44%).

April 28, 2011