VIENNA, May 16 (Reuters) – Austria’s Kommunalkredit
could still be sold and does not need to be wound
down, the country’s market watchdog said on Thursday after
Vienna missed an EU privatisation deadline for the lender.

The sale of Kommunalkredit, a public-sector finance
specialist nationalised in 2008, was required under the terms of
Austria’s bailout. Its failure adds to the country’s problems
with the European Commission, which is already questioning state
aid to another Austrian bank.

VIENNA, May 14 (Reuters) – Austrian energy group OMV
reported higher-than-expected profit and cash flow for
the first quarter after downstream activities reversed a
year-ago loss, and said this would help it pursue its ambitious
investment programme.

OMV is switching focus from refining and selling oil and gas
to higher-risk but higher-reward exploration and production, and
plans a hike in investments this year. It is exploring what may
be its biggest ever gas find, in the Black Sea.

VIENNA (Reuters) – Telekom Austria (TELA.VI: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) plans to save over 110 million euros ($144 million) in costs this year, more than its previous target of 100 million, as price wars rage despite market consolidation in Austria, its chief executive said on Wednesday.

The company reported a drop in earnings late on Tuesday that was less steep than the market had feared but said it expected price competition to intensify.

VIENNA, May 7 (Reuters) – Telekom Austria said it
expected price competition to intensify in its major markets,
rather than diminish as had been hoped by Austrian carriers
after a consolidation of the market.

Until last year, Austria had four mobile carriers fighting
over a population of just 8.4 million. That was cut to three
with Hutchison Whampoa’s takeover of Orange Austria
in January, but price pressure has not relented.

VIENNA, April 30 (Reuters) – Austrian construction group
Strabag chopped its 2012 dividend by two thirds and
said a profit collapse was due to its own mistakes as well as
austerity measures hurting the sector.

Central and eastern Europe’s biggest builder by market share
reported its first drop in operating profit in 27 years after
taking hits for uncollected payments, participation in
loss-making projects and over-ambitious acquisitions.

VIENNA, April 26 (Reuters) – Austria dropped its blockade of
European Union efforts to negotiate accords cracking down on
cross-border tax cheats, unveiling on Friday proposals that
would allow scrutiny of foreigners’ accounts while keeping bank
secrecy for Austrians.

After weeks of political wrangling, leaders of the two
coalition parties laid out joint priorities for talks with EU
partners starting next week that could pave the way for deals
with countries like Switzerland and the United States.

VIENNA (Reuters) – Domestic politics are bedevilling Austria’s efforts to forge a unified stance on easing banking secrecy just days before initial talks with European Union partners on how to crack down on cross-border tax cheats.

Austria is the only one of the EU’s 27 states yet to agree to routinely share data on bank accounts held by foreigners, after Luxembourg bowed to pressure this month to end decades of banking secrecy that helped make it a major financial center.

VIENNA/WARSAW (Reuters) – The venerable Vienna Stock Exchange swallowed centuries of national pride this month to enter into talks that could lead to a merger with its upstart rival in Warsaw.

Vienna, the central capital market of the Habsburg Empire in the eighteenth century and later gateway to central and eastern Europe after the fall of the Iron Curtain, has been usurped by the Warsaw exchange GPW.WA, with its friendly regulation and privatisations, as the main arena for investing in the region.

VIENNA/WARSAW (Reuters) – The venerable Vienna Stock Exchange swallowed centuries of national pride this month to enter into talks that could lead to a merger with its upstart rival in Warsaw.

Vienna, the central capital market of the Habsburg Empire in the eighteenth century and later gateway to central and eastern Europe after the fall of the Iron Curtain, has been usurped by the Warsaw exchange GPW.WA, with its friendly regulation and privatisations, as the main arena for investing in the region.

OBERWALTERSDORF, Austria (Reuters) – “The government is the management team of a country and unfortunately that management is made up of politicians.”

Like many others disillusioned with party politics in a recession-hit European Union, Austrian-Canadian car parts tycoon Frank Stronach promises to shake up the cozy political establishment in his native Austria. But unlike most disaffected groups, he promises more business-style government, not less – and he has the cash to make his voice heard.