Money Buzz! Europa

Category: Vienna

  • Netflix is getting more expensive in Austria for a second year in a row

    Netflix is getting more expensive in Austria for a second year in a row

    The video streaming provider Netflix is once again increasing prices for customers in Austria. From three available subscription options, two will be more expensive.

    Customers will have to pay one to two euros more for the HD and Ultra HD options, Heute says.

    The price for the basic subscription remains at 7.99 euros per month, but for the standard subscription customers will have to pay 12.99 euros instead of 11.99 euros per month.

    Users that have the premium subscription, which allows videos in Ultra HD on up to four devices at the same time, now pay 17.99 euros instead of 15.99 euros per month.

    Netflix raises prices in Austria for the second year in a row.

  • BaronMerino project, 61 % funded after 11 days on Kickstarter

    BaronMerino project, 61 % funded after 11 days on Kickstarter

    The Kickstarter campaign of Tyrolean start-up BaronMerino was ignited July 30th at 6:00 am (CET). After eleven days, great progress was already achieved and more than 60% of the project objective reached.

    Markus Hörtnagl’s vision is the creation of business fashion with a pleasant feeling in everyday life, which ensures well-being in stressful situations and is the perfect outfit also for afterwork activities.

    The founder defines the corporate goal as “the production of fair clothing for work and everyday life, socially acceptable, with the highest quality and standards.”

    To realize this vision, the founder launched a crowdfunding campaign on the international platform Kickstarter.

    The patented material helps to prevent sweat and smell, is hypoallergenic, soft on the skin, regulates body temperature, is also sustainably produced and made in Austria.

  • Austrian Post revenues at almost EUR 1 bn in the first half of 2020

    Austrian Post revenues at almost EUR 1 bn in the first half of 2020

    Austrian Post revenues amounted to EUR 981.9m in the first half of 2020, slightly higher than the prior-year level (+0.1 %). The dynamically growing parcel business showed a significant increase of 30.0 %, compensating for the decline in the Mail and Retail & Bank divisions. 

    The Mail Division accounted for 59.8 % of the Group revenue. In the Mail Division, the expected shortfalls resulted in a revenue decrease of 10.5 %. This is, on the one hand, due to a significant decline in conventional Letter Mail volumes triggered by the closure of many governmental offices and businesses.

    On the other hand, Direct Mail revenue was also significantly impaired by the government-imposed store closings in response to COVID-19.

    The revenue of the Parcel & Logistics Division was driven by organic growth from online orders as well as additional parcel volumes generated through the cooperation with Deutsche Post DHL Group since August 2019.

    The 34.6 % revenue decrease in the newly created Retail & Bank Division in the first half of 2020 is due to the inaugural launch of bank99 on 1 April 2020, whereas the first half of the previous year still included service fees from the previous banking partner of EUR 18.8m.

    The start-up of bank99 presents a significant special effect in 2020

    bank99 has been operating on the market since the beginning of April and will feature a focused offering of financial services.

    The bank has already attracted more than 42.000 customers in the first four months and recorded initial financial services revenue.

    The objective is to add new products to the financial services offering in the upcoming quarterly periods and generate positive earnings contributions by 2023.

    Accordingly, the Retail & Bank Division produced a negative earnings contribution of EUR 28.7m due to the start-up costs for bank99 and the impact related to COVID-19.

    Group EBIT in the first half of 2020 totalled EUR 48.2m, down from EUR 107.7m in the first half of 2019. Earnings per share equalled EUR 0.66, compared to EUR 1.17 in the previous year.

  • Only 53.000 passengers travelled with Austrian Airlines in Q2 2020

    Only 53.000 passengers travelled with Austrian Airlines in Q2 2020

    Whereas in the previous year the airline carried around four million passengers between April and June, this figure was only 53.000 in 2020.

    As a result of the coronavirus crisis and the cessation of Austrian Airlines‘ flight operations for a period of close to three months, Austria’s national carrier generated adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (adjusted EBIT) of minus EUR 99 million in the second quarter of 2020, down from positive results of EUR 46 million in the prior-year quarter.

    Accordingly, the adjusted EBIT for the first half of 2020 equaled minus EUR 235 million. The number of passengers carried by Austrian Airlines fell by 70 percent to around 2 million due to the pandemic.

    With the exception of humanitarian cargo flights, the second quarter consisted of practically only two weeks of minimum operations in June.

    Revenue slumped by 94 percent to EUR 35 million

    During the same period, total revenues fell by 90 percent to EUR 59 million (Q2 2019: EUR 610 million).

    Total expenses for the same period amounted to EUR 158 million, a decrease of 72 percent (Q2 2019: EUR 565 million) compared with the same quarter of the previous year.

    Adjusted EBIT ultimately amounted to EUR -99 million in the second quarter (Q2 2019: EUR 46 million).

  • Sharp falls in Austrian imports and exports in May 2020

    Sharp falls in Austrian imports and exports in May 2020

    The lockdown in Austria and numerous other countries due to COVID-19 was reflected in the Austrian International Trade in Goods Statistics with sharp falls in both trade flows in May (imports: -24.8%, exports: -25.5%).

    In the period January to May 2020, total imports amounted to €58.08 bn and total exports added up to €57.00 bn, according to preliminary results by Statistics Austria.

    Compared to the corresponding period of the previous year, Austrian imports decreased by 14.3% and Austrian exports declined by 12.9%.

    The global ITGS balance showed a deficit of €1.08 bn. Working-day adjusted, the rates of decrease were 13.5% for imports and 12.0% for exports.

  • Cooles Wien, the app that helps you find where you can chill nearby

    Cooles Wien, the app that helps you find where you can chill nearby

    If you are looking for some cooling off spaces in Vienna, you can use a new app. Cooles Wien is now available for free in Google Play and App Store.

    In the Cooles Wien app will find all over 1.000 drinking fountains, 55 cooling memorial fountains, 50 mobile drinking fountains including fog showers, more than 1.000 parks with their shady trees, 7 water playgrounds, 75 fog showers in parks and over 100 summer splashes – with fog showers on water hydrants – in Vienna.

    These places are noted on a digital map and will be displayed as soon as you are nearby.

    Vienna builds more parks than any other European capital

    There are currently around 1.000 parks in Vienna, and 16 hectares of parking space will be added in the coming years.

    In the last 5 years, 126 parks have been redesigned, 18 completely rebuilt, including very large facilities such as Seepark in the Donaustadt with 44,600 m2, or the Helmut Zilk Park with 67,700 m2.

    The groundbreaking ceremony for the 30,000 m2 Elinor-Ostrom-Park in the Danube city took place recently and Vienna’s first cooling park is currently being built at the Haus des Meer, with a large cooling spot that cools the surrounding area by up to 6 degrees.

    A total of more than 474,500 m2 of green spaces have been redesigned or redesigned since 2015.

  • Vienna RegTech platform Kompany, accelerates growth with new funding

    Vienna RegTech platform Kompany, accelerates growth with new funding

    Kompany announced a new investment of almost €6 million, the company’s largest single investment round to date.

    Fairway Global Investment led the round, together with Global Brain, a major venture capital firm based in Tokyo, Japan, who acted as co-investor.

    Both are global investors in RegTech, FinTech and the payment sector and expect their portfolio companies to benefit from Kompany’s technological lead in Business KYC (KYB).

    Existing shareholders, including the European Super Angels Club and the Kompany management team also participated in this round.

    The new fundraising round directly supports the further development of two key technologies: the AI-based instant shareholder discovery and the fusion of Digital Identity with Business KYC (KYB) for cross-border payments.

  • Voestalpine cuts up to 550 jobs in Styria, Austria

    Voestalpine cuts up to 550 jobs in Styria, Austria

    The Austrian steel group Voestalpine suffered heavy losses in the 2019/20 financial year and recorded a loss of EUR 216 million, compared with a profit of EUR 459 million the year before.

    “We are in the process of negotiating a social plan for around 500 to 550 employees”, Group CEO Herbert Eibensteiner said in a conference call on Wednesday, cited by Heute.

    There will be around 250 jobs in Kindberg and up to 300 in Kapfenberg. Apprenticeships and research jobs are not affected by the savings.

    In Styria, Voestalpine currently employs around 3.500 people on short-time schedule, almost a third of the workforce.

    Global steel demand is expected to fall 6.4% this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on industrial and construction activity, before bouncing back next year, according to the World Steel Association.

    Voestalpine expects demand to further slow over the summer, partly due to seasonal shutdowns, and hopes to be better able to assess further order development after September.

  • Vienna startup Byrd raises €5m Series A to scale its global fulfilment platform

    Vienna startup Byrd raises €5m Series A to scale its global fulfilment platform

    Byrd has raised €5 million to scale its operation internationally. The Series A round was led by Rider Global, a venture fund with a strong focus on logistics, e-commerce and mobility.

    Since its start in 2016, Byrd has collected a total of more than €9 million from business angels and VCs, including Speedinvest, Reflex Capital, Hermann Hauser, and KK Incube, as well as public funding. 

    Byrd runs a fulfillment network without touching a single parcel or owning a single warehouse.

    The startup connects online merchants to an international warehouse network, enabling retailers to offer advanced shipping options on an international scale without needing to build their own logistics network.

    The company’s fulfillment platform integrates with leading e-commerce systems such as Shopify and qualified logistics partners in multiple countries, bringing retailers closer to their customers. 

    Beyond its core markets in Germany and Austria where the company started, it has fulfillment locations in the UK, and will launch new locations in Netherlands and France in the coming weeks.

    Currently, the company is able to ship 10.000 orders per day from more than 10 different warehouses, with storage capacities of more than 500.000 square meters. 

    Byrd is planning to add another three European countries to its fulfillment network in 2020, amounting to eight active markets by the end of the year.

  • Turnover in Austrian industry and construction decreased by 25.6% in April

    Turnover in Austrian industry and construction decreased by 25.6% in April

    A total of 66.275 enterprises in the entire industry and construction sector (+0.8% compared to the previous year) turned over €87.7 bn (-11.6%) in the reporting period January to April 2020, according to calculations by Statistics Austria.

    The working-day adjusted turnover for industry and construction decreased by 11.9%. These figures coupled with a decreasing employment (963.309 persons, -3.0%).

    In April 2020 turnover decreased by 25.6% compared to the same month of the previous year.

    At establishment level (66.840 establishments, +0.7%), sold production decreased by 11.8% (working-day adjusted: -12.1%) in comparison to previous year’s level and amounted to €86.4 bn in nominal terms (employing 962.763 persons, -3.0%).

    With €73.2 bn in nominal terms, industrial production sold fell by 13.1% compared to the previous year. Compared with the same month last year (April 2019) sold production declined by 25.7% in industry and construction.

    The 36.452 Austrian construction establishments (+1.4%) achieved a production sold of €13.2 bn in the reporting period January to April 2020.

    This corresponds to a decrease of 3.9% in nominal terms (working-day adjusted: -4.2%) compared to the previous year.

    At the end of April 2020, Austrian construction companies (not including construction auxiliary trades) had orders booked totalling about €16.0 bn (-6.7% year-over-year).

  • TUI Blue opens newly built hotel in Montafon, Austria

    TUI Blue opens newly built hotel in Montafon, Austria

    The growth of TUI Blue in the Alps continues with a newly constructed building. TUI Blue Montafon is already the third hotel of the brand in Austria.

    On the opening day residents from the region were able to experience the lifestyle concept during an ”open day” and to convince themselves of the comprehensive hygiene measures for hotel operations.

    The new building has been constructed on the property of the Austrian communities of Schruns / Tschagguns.

    The mountain hotel has 149 rooms, restaurant with buffet area, bar, conference rooms, fitness, wellness and sauna area.

    In the peak season, TUI Blue Montafon will employ around 60 people.

  • Austria: 58% of the people who had terminated their employment found another job by the end of June

    Austria: 58% of the people who had terminated their employment found another job by the end of June

    According to Statistics Austria the number of new jobs taken up between April and June 2020 was about 167.000 higher than the number of jobs that ended in this period.

    58% of the people who had terminated their employment in the second half of March 2020 had found employment again by the end of June 2020.

    The number of persons in employment according to the international definition was 4 195 700 for June 2020, already 62 800 higher than in May 2020. Nonetheless, employment figures remained 106 700 below June 2019.

    Analysis by gender shows that while women and men were affected to a similar extent at the beginning of the crisis, men are more likely to quickly re-enter the labour market.

    Overall, by the end of June, 62% of men, but only 52% of women, who left employment in the second half of March, had re-entered the labour market.