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BUSINESS

Where are Austria’s big international companies located?

Austria's most prominent international companies are involved in banking, insurance, and construction projects worldwide, many but are they all found in Vienna?

Published: 1 December 2023 11:33 CET
Where are Austria's big international companies located?
Many of Austria's largest companies are headquartered close to Vienna's city centre. Photo: Pixabay / Moritz320

Here’s where each of the ten largest companies in Austria, by revenue generated last year, are located, both within Vienna and outside of the capital.

One of Central and Eastern Europe’s biggest insurance firms, the Vienna Insurance Group is headquartered in the capital. Their main offices are directly north of the Innere Stadt on Schottenring, close to the Rossau district.

A fellow insurance firm, the Uniqa Group, is located close by. Owning over fifteen significant insurance providers across Europe, they are market leaders alongside Vienna Insurance Group. Their headquarters can be found in the eponymous Uniqa Tower, on Ferdinandstraße close to the Karmeliterviertel.

Erste Group, one of the continent’s biggest providers of financial services, was founded just over two hundred years ago in Leopoldstadt, a suburb adjoining Vienna’s centre to the east. Today, the group is headquartered in the Erste Campus, less than a five-minute walk from Vienna’s central train station.

Founded in the fifties, OMV is the country’s largest oil and gas company. The company owns three European refineries, including one at Schwechat in Lower Austria, near the capital. The company is based in the Hoch Zwei building in the Second District, near the banks of the Danube.

Construction company Strabag, responsible for massive infrastructure projects across Europe and South East Asia, is located across the Danube from OMW, near the Austria Centre and the expansive Donaupark.

Banking giant Raiffeisen International is headquartered in the Weissgerberviertel, north of Vienna’s city centre. Other divisions, including their software development teams, are based throughout the city centre.

Construction company Porr Group, which has many subsidiaries in Austria and involvement in significant railway building projects throughout Europe, has headquarters in Vienna’s south, five kilometres away, in the Favoriten district.

Verbund AG, Austria’s largest energy provider, can also be found outside Vienna’s centre. It is based to the south-west, close to the Mariahilf district and the city’s Westbahnhof, or western train station.

Steel and technology group Voestalpine is located away from Vienna in Linz, Upper Austria, roughly equidistant between Salzburg and Vienna. The company’s headquarters can be found between the Spallerhof district and the Industriegebeit, or industrial area.

Finally, international metals and technology firm Andritz AG is also based outside Vienna, in Graz in Styria. Their headquarters is some distance from the city centre, in the district which gave the company its name: Graz-Andritz.

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ECONOMY

Why is Austria’s economy faring so badly compared to the rest of the EU?

Of the 15 countries that joined the EU before 2004, Austria had the lowest growth and highest inflation between 2019 and 2023.

Published: 3 July 2024 14:30 CEST
Why is Austria's economy faring so badly compared to the rest of the EU?

According to calculations by the liberal think tank Agenda Austria, Austria’s economy has not been performing well compared with other EU countries.

Of the 15 countries that joined the EU before 2004, Austria had the lowest growth and highest inflation between 2019 and 2023. While life became around 22 percentage points more expensive, real gross domestic product per capita (GDP) shrank by 1.6 percentage points in the same period.

Some of Austria’s neighbours, such as Germany, also saw high inflation, but prices rose 19.3 percent with the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita decreasing by 0.9 percent from 2019 to 2023. Italy, on the other hand, saw a 17.2 percent price increase but its GDP rose by 4.8 percent over the same period.

So why are things so much worse for people in Austria than elsewhere?

‘Partly home-made’

According to Jan Kluge an economist with Agenda Austria the answer is multifactorial. 

Luge says that Austria’s inflation has skyrocketed compared to its neighbours, particularly as the federal government spent money with aid programs during the coronavirus and inflation crisis. 

“The high inflation is therefore partly homemade”, he told Kurier.

This aid was also afforded to companies that were not financially sound.

“We have created zombie companies. In other countries, companies were allowed to go bust during the pandemic. We dragged ailing companies along with us and are still doing so today,” Kluge said.

READ ALSO: Can my landlord in Austria increase the rent whenever they want?

Following a sharp decline in insolvencies during the pandemic, Austria is now experiencing massive bankruptcies. Creditforum estimates that 7,500 companies will go bankrupt this year. 

Kluge attributes this – in addition to the rise in interest rates, high energy costs and strict regulations – to inadequate aid money. “Insolvencies are now slowly catching up because many have finally run out of steam”, he said.

According to Kluge, Austria’s weak performance is even more worrying when compared globally.

This is because the performance European economic area had already deteriorated compared to the USA during the 2008 financial crisis. In other words, Austria is weakening within an EU that is also under performing.

What can be done?

Liberal think tank Agenda Austria, which says its focus is on “market-based solutions”, has a list of “recommendations” for the Austrian economy, although they might not all go down well with workers or unions.

They start by calling for an end to “election sweets”, as they call them.

This means politicians should “stop handing out election gifts”, as any populist measure and handout contributes to rising prices.

“Popular interventions in prices are also strongly discouraged. Prices have an important function. Switching them off does not combat inflation; it only hides it. And only in the best-case scenario”, the think tank said.

They also recommend that the government “get a grip on the spending spree,” suggesting the adoption of a spending brake model based on Swedish or Swiss tools. 

READ ALSO: What is the ‘friendship economy’ in Austria and how does it work?

Additionally, Agenda Austria advocates for reducing labour costs which would continue to boost prices in Austria. They pointed out that tough wage negotiations led to increases in salaries in 2024.

They suggested: “To counteract this, the government can lower taxes on labour, thus reducing the increase in labour costs and counteracting a wage-price spiral.”

Finally, the liberal think tank also recommends that the government promote lively competition, increase supply, and ” let the market work.” They also mention that consumers can benefit from a range of products “from abroad,” even if domestic ones “naturally give us the best quality in every situation.”

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