Money Buzz! Europa

Category: Vienna

  • Pandemic hit Austrian Airlines ”with full force” in the first quarter

    Pandemic hit Austrian Airlines ”with full force” in the first quarter

    • Austrian Airlines revenue decline of 24% in the first quarter of 2020;
    • Strong year-on-year drop in passenger volume of 27%.

    ”The pandemic hit our company with full force”, states Austrian Airlines CFO Wolfgang Jani, commenting on developments.

    ”This blow is also reflected in our earnings. We will likely see the full effects in the coming months. However, it is already obvious today that it will take years for us to weather the crisis”, he adds.

    Austrian Airlines fleet has been grounded since March 19, 2020 as a consequence of the pandemic. Beforehand, the flight schedule for China and later for Europe had to be drastically slashed due to the spread of the coronavirus.

    Even though the far greater impact will be felt in the second quarter of this year, the corona-related development is also reflected in the financial figures for the first quarter: Revenue and passenger volume of the airline were both down by about one-quarter compared to the prior-year period. In turn, this led to adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (adjusted EBIT) of minus EUR 136 million in the first quarter of 2020.

    Austrian Airlines carried 1.9 million passengers in the first three months

    Austrian Airlines carried 1.9 million passengers in the first three months of the current year, comprising a decline of 27 percent from the comparable period of 2019. The flight offering in available seat kilometers had to be reduced by 19 percent to 4.5 billion.

    Capacity utilization (passenger load factor) fell to 68.2 percent due to the crisis. Many passengers actually did not travel despite valid flight bookings.

    The regularity of operation, an indicator with little significance at the present time in light of the coronavirus crisis, was down to 95.2 percent in the first quarter of 2020. The punctuality rate on departure could be improved to 88.1 percent, whereas the punctuality rate on arrival rose to 88.6 percent.

    Austrian Airlines operated a total of 22.727 flights during this period, or 253 flights per day.

    First-quarter revenue fell to EUR 287 million

    First-quarter revenue fell by 24 percent to EUR 287 million, and total operating revenue also decreased by 24 percent to EUR 304 million.

    Operating expenditures were down twelve percent to EUR 440 million. Earnings expressed as adjusted EBIT (adjusted earnings before interest and taxes) equaled minus EUR 136 million, comprising a decline of 37 percent from the previous year (Q1 2019: minus EUR 99 million). EBIT plummeted to minus EUR 197 million. The deviation between the adjusted EBIT and EBIT can be attributed to a revaluation of the aircraft fleet. (Refer to the chart on the last page for details.)

    The total staff of Austrian Airlines amounted to 6.943 employees as at the balance sheet date of March 31, 2020 (March 31, 2019: 7.061 employees).

  • Uniqa Insurance Group to pay 0.18 euro / share dividend

    Uniqa Insurance Group to pay 0.18 euro / share dividend

    Uniqa Insurance Group announces the dividend for 2019 financial year: 18 cents per share.

    The dividend payment date is 8 June 2020.

    Johann Strobl, CEO of Raiffeisen Bank International AG (RBI), was elected to the Supervisory Board of UNIQA Insurance Group AG by the Annual General Meeting.

    Long-time bank manager Johann Strobl was Chief Risk Officer at RBI/RZB from 2007 to 2017 and Deputy CEO at RBI from 2013 to 2017. He has been the CEO of RBI, one of the leading banks in Austria and Central and Eastern Europe, since 2017. A business administration graduate, he has worked in the banking industry since 1989 and has served in Management Board positions since 2004.

    Erwin Hameseder left UNIQA’s Supervisory Board at the end of the Annual General Meeting on 25 May 2020.

  • €1,000 per month for freelance artists in Austria

    €1,000 per month for freelance artists in Austria

    The €90 million fund will be available for a maximum of six months and will enable self-employed artists to receive €1,000 per month.  

    “We are setting up a bridging fund for self-employed artists in the amount of €90 million to supplement existing measures in the arts and culture sector, with planned payments of €1,000 per month”, said Finance Minister Gernot Blümel at a press conference on the Federal Government’s culture package.

    Some measures have already been implemented in the arts and culture sector.

    These measures include bolstering the artists’ social insurance fund by €5 million, adapting the hardship fund by extending the application period from three to six months, increasing the minimum payment to €500 and offering a comeback bonus of €500 per month.

    In addition, an umbrella association package worth up to €700 million plus retroactive insurance of €25 million have already been put together for the film industry.

  • How Austrian industry and construction sector performed this year

    How Austrian industry and construction sector performed this year

    A total of 66.216 enterprises in the entire industry and construction sector (+0.7% compared to the previous year) turned over €45.0 bn (-5.1%) in the reporting period January and February 2020, according to calculations by Statistics Austria.

    The working-day adjusted turnover for industry and construction decreased by 4.3%. These figures coupled with a slightly increasing employment (960 728 persons, +1.2%).

    At establishment level (66.781 establishments, +0.7%), production sold decreased by 5.5% (working-day adjusted: -4.8%) in comparison to previous year’s level and amounted to €44.3 bn in nominal terms (employing 959.971 persons, +1.2%).

    With €38.2 bn in nominal terms, industrial production sold fell by 7.4% compared to the previous year.

    The 36.384 Austrian construction establishments (+1.4%) achieved a production sold of €6.2 bn in the reporting period January and February 2020. This corresponds to an increase of 7.9% in nominal terms (working-day adjusted: +9.2%) compared to the previous year.

    At the end of February 2020, Austrian construction companies (not including construction auxiliary trades) had orders booked totalling about €15.9 bn (-3.6% year-over-year).

  • Austrian Airlines will resume regular flights on 15 June 2020

    Austrian Airlines will resume regular flights on 15 June 2020

    • On 15 June 2020, Austrian Airlines aircraft will resume regular flights after a break of almost 90 days.
    • Subject to new official restrictions, the airline will thus take off to 37 destinations in the first two weeks of the new start. 

    Austrian Airlines will offer flights to the following destinations in the first week of resuming its flight operations: Amsterdam, Athens, Basel, Berlin, Brussels, Bucharest, Dubrovnik, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Geneva, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Larnaca, London, Munich, Paris, Pristina, Sarajevo, Skopje, Sofia, Stockholm, Stuttgart, Tel Aviv, Thessaloniki, Tirana, Varna and Zurich.

    In the following week, namely from 22-28 June 2020, the airline will operate flights to additional destinations, i.e. Belgrade, Graz, Innsbruck, Kyiv, Košice, Milan, Nice, Prague, Split and Warsaw.

    Austrian Airlines will offer an average of 5 percent capacity compared to the previous year.

    In the initial phase, the airline will primarily deploy smaller aircraft such as Embraer 195 and Dash 8.

    The airline is currently developing a flight schedule for July.

  • Real estate prices continue to rise in 2019 in Austria

    Real estate prices continue to rise in 2019 in Austria

    Residential property prices as measured by the Austrian house price index increased by 5.8% in 2019, according to Statistics Austria.

    House prices increased by 4.6% and flats by 6.7% compared to 2018. Furthermore, the 2019 update of the average real estate prices shows large regional differences in Austrian regions.

    The Austrian average was €80 per square meter of building plots, €3.226 per square meter in apartments and €1.600 per square meter in houses.

    The average real estate prices calculated for Austria are available for all districts (for dwellings and apartments) and municipalities (building plots). It covers regional real estate prices for houses, apartments and land and is based on land register data from the years 2015 to 2019.

    Large price differences between rural and urban areas as well as the eastern and western part of Austria are evident.

  • 1.472.000 persons in Austria at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2019

    1.472.000 persons in Austria at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2019

    1.472.000 persons or 16.9% of the population in Austria were at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2019, as Statistics Austria reports.

    They belonged to the social target group of the EU’s Europe 2020 strategy because of low household income (1.161.000 persons or 13.3%), severe material deprivation (223.000 persons or 2.6%) or low work intensity of the household (507.000 persons below the age of 60, or 7.8%).

    Since these categories can overlap, the total number of persons at-risk-of-poverty or social exclusion is lower than the sum of the three individual indicators.

    Compared to the year before, data showed only a minor, statistically insignificant decrease of the number of people affected (2018: 17.5% or 1.512.000 persons at risk of poverty or social exclusion). However, since 2008, the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions EU-SILC show a declining trend: In total, 227.000 persons less were reported to be at risk of being poor or socially excluded.

    303.000 children and youths below the age of 18 were among those affected by poverty or social exclusion

    303.000 children and youths below the age of 18 were among those affected by poverty or social exclusion in 2019. Not only did their households belong to this group, but they were also excluded from social participation in their own life spheres.

    Children up to 15 years were more likely to not invite friends to play or eat due to financial reasons if their households were at risk of poverty or social exclusion: 8% of children from those households could not afford such invitations, as compared to only 2% of all other children.

    Also regular leisure activities that come with costs like sports or music lessons could be followed less by those affected by poverty risks: 22% could not afford such activities for their children whereas only 3% with no poverty risk reported so.

    36% of all under 18-year-olds from households at risk of poverty or social exclusion did not have access to a computer at home, but only 10% of their peers.

    Every fourth person (27%) coming from a family background with low educational attainment (both parents only had a compulsory school degree or none at all) managed to finish only compulsory schooling themselves, potentially leading to lower income and lack of social participation.

    In contrast, only 6% had the lowest educational attainment if at least one of their parents had a higher degree. Compared to persons from families with higher education, the risk of poverty or social exclusion was 1.4 times higher for those coming from families with a low educational background.

  • Austria: Number of overnight stays in April dropped by 96.5%

    Austria: Number of overnight stays in April dropped by 96.5%

    According to preliminary data by Statistics Austria, the number of overnight stays in April 2020 dropped by 96.5% or 7.92 million compared to April 2019 to 287 000.

    Due to the shutdown of accommodation establishments and border closings since mid of March 2020 almost no overnight stays were registered in the last one and a half months of the 2019/20 winter season.

    The number of overnight stays for the entire winter season 2019/2020 (November to April) fell by 18.1% to 59.72 million and corresponds to the overnight stay volume of the 2006/07 winter season with 59.38 million overnight stays.

    The number of nights spent in the current calendar year 2020 (January to April) decreased by 24.9% to 42.30 million, the number of arrivals by 31.9% to 9.97 million.

  • Immofinanz rental income rose by 13.4% to EUR 74.0 million in Q1 2020

    Immofinanz rental income rose by 13.4% to EUR 74.0 million in Q1 2020

    Immofinanz rental income rose by 13.4% to EUR 74.0 million in the first quarter of the 2020 financial year, above all due to the expansion of the portfolio through acquisitions and completions.

    The results of asset management increased by 18.1% to EUR 59.5 million, and the results of operations were 18.0% higher at EUR 43.5 million.

    However, the revaluation results of EUR -45.0 million from standing investments and goodwill reflect the adverse effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Net profit for Q1 2020 was therefore negative at EUR -37.6 million.

    Occupancy rate stable at high level

    The real estate portfolio included 211 properties with a combined carrying amount of approximately EUR 5.1 billion as of 31 March 2020. Most of these properties – 92.2% or EUR 4.7 billion – are standing investments.

    Of this total, 64.7% are attributable to the office business and 35.2% to the retail business.

    The occupancy rate remained nearly constant at 96.4% (31 December 2019: 96.8%). The gross return equalled 6.1% based on IFRS rental income and 6.4% based on invoiced rents.

    Covid-19 update

    The legal regulations implemented to contain Covid-19 have been gradually lifted in recent weeks, beginning with mid-April in Austria, in nearly all countries where Immofinanz owns retail properties. At the present time, 79%
    of Immofinanz’s retail space has reopened.

    Romania represents an exception, where the four VIVO! shopping centers are still closed.

  • Vienna’s public pools to open the special season on May 29th

    Vienna’s public pools to open the special season on May 29th

    On Friday, May 29th, Vienna’s 17 summer pools, 10 family pools, the indoor pools in Hütteldorf and Brigittenau with outdoor facilities, and the outdoor area of ​​the Jörgerbad will reopen.

    Due to the corona crisis, it will be a special summer season with some restrictions: minimum distance, special hygiene rules and, in certain areas, mouth-nose protection masks also apply in bathing operations. 

    • Admission is permitted for one person per 10 m2 of lying area.
    • The use of the swimming pools is permitted for one person per 6 m2 of water surface.
    • A minimum distance of one meter from other bathers must be kept at the entrance as well as at the entire bathing area, unless they live in the same household.
    • The number of changing boxes to be used will be reduced accordingly.
    • A minimum distance of 1-2 meters must be observed in swimming pools and 3-4 meters in natural waters. 
    • The general hygiene rules must be observed, special hygiene is expected in sanitary rooms and swimming pools.
    • A mouth-nose protective mask must be worn in all interiors.
    • Lingering at entrances, pool edges and pool surrounds is not permitted.
    • Accumulations should be avoided, except for regulated queuing at water slides, diving boards or restaurants.

    Up to 40.000 users at the same time

    The requirement of 10 m2 per swimmer means a reduction in visitors to around a third of the normal capacity. Rapid full utilization of many bathrooms is therefore quite possible with bathing weather. 

    Free bathing spots will be shown this year here and the app “Stadt Wien Live”. If a bathroom is full, this is indicated on site by signs and the “blue flag”.

    Monthly and season tickets will not be available in 2020 or their validity will be suspended as access cannot be guaranteed. Control systems, markings and, if necessary, barriers are set up in the entrance areas. 

    Entry is possible in the 17 summer pools for up to 40,000 swimmers at the same time. This corresponds to about a third of the usual capacity. The access options at the individual locations range from 350 swimmers in the summer pool in Hadersdorf-Weidlingau to, for example, 1.695 in the summer pool in Döbling, 2.630 in the Strandbad Alte Donau and up to 13.075 in the goose heap.

  • €1 billion of special-purpose grants for Austrian municipalities

    €1 billion of special-purpose grants for Austrian municipalities

    The Federal Government of Austria is providing municipalities with €1 billion in the form of special-purpose grants. Community investments are supported with up to 50% funding.

    The €1 billion municipal package supports investments by up to 50% and includes the construction and renovation of kindergartens, schools, retirement homes and sports facilities, as well as investment in public transport, energy saving measures, the construction of renewable energy production facilities and the expansion of the broadband network.

    Additionally, it covers renovations, such as of churches and museums. It will run until 31 December 2021. The allocation of funds will be based partly on the graduated population key and partly on the number of inhabitants.

    For example, the municipality of Sillian, which has about 2,000 inhabitants, can receive around €200,000 while the city of Graz can get up to €40.5 million.

    ”We intend to provide federal states and municipalities with the necessary funds to create economic incentives. That’s why we have launched this municipal package. It has a value of €1 billion in order to support both existing and future investments”, said Finance Minister Gernot Blümel.

  • Austrian environmental industry employed 182.963 people in 2018

    Austrian environmental industry employed 182.963 people in 2018

    In 2018, the Austrian environmental industry employed 182 963 people and achieved an output of €36.9 bn. The gross value added created by the environmental industry reached €14.3 bn and environmental exports amounted to €11.3 bn.

    These are the main results of Statistics Austria on the environmental goods and services sector (EGSS).

    If public transport is also taken into account, although it is not part of the EGSS, 211.204 persons were active in the environmental industry.

    As in previous years, the most important environmental domain was management of energy resources. This domain is mainly focused on renewable energies as well as heat/energy saving and management and generated 48.6% of the total environmental output, 43.1% of the environmental gross value added as well as 66.1% of the environmental exports with 34.3% of all employees in the environmental industry.

    The subdomain renewable energy includes, for example, the production of renewable energy and heat, the production and installation of renewable energy technologies as well as bio fuels.

    The subdomain heat/energy saving and management includes e.g. the production of low energy buildings and insulation materials, energy consulting and thermal rehabilitation of buildings.

    Further important environmental domains were protection of ambient air and climate, wastewater management, waste management as well as protection and remediation of soil, groundwater and surface water.