Tag: Europe

The Austrian Government gave permission to state-holding and privatisation agency OeIAG on January 12, 2006 to sell up to 49 pct of state-owned postal company Oesterreichische Post AG over the stock exchange. Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel called the move a very important step which would lead to an initial public offering (IPO) of Post AG. It is now up to the OeIAG and its IPO advisers to select the exact date. The government will retain the remaining 51 pct in Post AG and Schuessel said it was not necesssary to anchor this amount in the constitution.

Austrian state-owned postal company Oesterreichische Post AG increased its earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) by 5.0 pct year-on-year to 91.2 mln euro (USD110.5 mln) in 2005, sources close to the company said on January 11, 2006. Post AG revenue rose by 2.0 pct to 1.626 bln euro (USD1.969 bln). The number of employees decreased to 24,000 in 2005 from 25,400 in 2004. The company, which is expected to announce its final 2005 results in February 2006, did not confirm these figures.

Austrian Finance Minister Karl-Heinz Grasser said 49 pct of the Austrian post office, Oesterreichische Post AG, will float on the stock market in autumn. Last year, the head of the post office had said the service might have an IPO in April 2006.