Immofinanz on road to recovery
Vienna-based real estate firm Immofinanz managed to keep its turnover stable in the first three quarters of its 2009/2010 business year (1 May to 30 April).Company officials said today (Weds) it had had turnover of 552.8 million Euros, down by just 0.47 per cent compared to its turnover during the same period of its previous business year.Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) had soared by a third to 281.7 million Euros, they added.It was also announced that earnings before interest and taxes (Ebit) had improved between 1 May and 31 October 2009.After suffering losses of 1.754 billion Euros in the first three quarters of the previous business year, Immofinanz earned 246.7 million Euros in the first three quarters of the current business year.Immoeast, the firms subsidiary set to merge with Immofinanz, had earnings before interest and taxes (Ebit) of 215.8 million Euros after losses of 1.4 billion Euros in the first three quarters of the previous business year.Immofinanz has been in the news in a negative context over the past few months.State prosecutors have tried to find out whether reports that it paid 10 million Euros to lobbyists Walter Meischberger and Peter Hochegger for their services in its successful bid to take over the federal construction and housing management association (Bauen und Wohnen GmbH or BUWOG) are accurate.Former Finance Minister Karl-Heinz Grasser decided to privatise BUWOG in 2000.Meischberger, one of the two Immofinanz lobbyists, is a close friend of Grasser and a former Freedom Party (FPÖ) MP as is the minister.Media have claimed payments were made via a Cypriot company.Meischberger and Hochegger, the other Immofinanz lobbyist, have admitted to having engaged in tax evasion, while Grasser has denied any wrongdoing.