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| ACS acquires German billionaire von Finck's 25 % stake in Hochtief  Spanish building giant ACS has reached an agreement to acquire 25.1% of the German construction and concessions group Hochtief from the Munich headquartered holding company Custodia for 1,264 million euros. August von Finck's Custodia Holding AG, Hochtief's largest shareholder, announced in December it was considering selling its stake in Hochtief, saying it was investigating strategic options to optimise its investment portfolio and would assign an investment bank to look into the possible sale of the stake.Hochtief leads the construction business in Germany and is the third leading construction company in the world in sales (15,000 million euros in 2006 with net profit close to 100 million euros). The German group is, in addition, one of the top ten infrastructure concession developers and a world-wide leader in international sales in the construction sector. International markets represented more than 80% of Hochtief's sales in 2005. With this transaction, the ACS Group becomes the industrial reference shareholder for German companies, with great potential for growth and increased profitability. At the same time, it has obtained a privileged platform from which to increase and accelerate its international expansion in the United States, Central Europe and the Asia Pacific region. In fact, through its company The Turner Corporation in the United States and Leighton Holdings Limited in Australia, Hochtief occupies positions of leadership in both markets. Hochtief also has a significant presence in Canada, the Czech Republic, Austria, Bulgaria, Brazil and Southeast Asia, among other countries/regions. The company, founded in 1875, is one of the oldest European construction companies and has evolved into the most international in Europe and one of the main promoters of infrastructure concessions and public buildings in the world. In 2006, Hochtief ranked 8 in the world in developers of infrastructure concessions, according to PWF magazine. It participates, along with other concessions, in the airports of Athens, Dusseldorf, Hamburg and Sydney, which transported almost 75 million passengers in 2005. It also participates in the following motorways and tunnels: Vienna North Highway, the tunnel of San Cristóbal and Vespucio North Express in Chile, the Tunnel of Herren in Lübeck (Germany), the North-South Bypass tunnel in Australia and the North Luzon Expressway in the Philippines. It is, in addition, an important developer of public buildings with private participation in Germany, United Kingdom and Ireland, with more than 80 projects, mostly educational in nature. write your comments about the article :: © 2007 Construction News :: home page |