ACS
Actividades de Construcción y Servicios

Over the last four years, the ACS Group has been the main shareholder in Hochtief, the German group fundamentally dedicated to infrastructure development, with a stake of 27.3% of its share capital at 31 December 2010. In September 2010, the ACS Group decided to table a Public Tender Offer aimed at all the shareholders in the German company Hochtief A.G. This operation was completed satisfactorily in February 2011, yielding 3.64% of the equity capital in the German company.

 
Hochtief is the seventh largest company in the world in the construction sector and the third largest in Europe, according to ENR, with a workforce of over 70,000 employees and a sales volume of 20,159 million euros in 2010, while its profit reported was 288 million, 50% higher than the figure for 2009. Likewise, it is the company with the highest level of internationalisation in the sector, as such over 90% of the company’s activity took place outside the German market in 2010. The main markets in which it operates are: Asia-Pacific, the United States, Central Europe and the Middle East, being one of the main private developers of infrastructure concessions and public buildings in the world.

Hochtief’s organisational structure is made up of six major business areas:

• Hochtief Americas: Carries out its business in the US through Turner and Flatiron and E.E. Cruz. Turner is the US leader in general construction and in high growth segments such as commercial offices, healthcare and educational buildings and “green” building. Flatiron is one of the 10 most important builders of transport infrastructure in the country, with a growing presence in Canada. They carried out several projects jointly within the last year. Hochtief acquired E.E. Cruz in 2010. This company is dedicated to developing infrastructures in the New York area.
• Hochtief Asia Pacific: Leighton, of which Hochtief owns 55%, is a leader in the Australian market and one of the top companies in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Leighton engages in building, construction and development of infrastructures, and concessions and services. It is also one of the leading mine operating companies in the world.
• Hochtief Europe: Engages in construction in Europe, both in Germany and in other European countries such as the United Kingdom, Austria, Russia, Poland and the Czech Republic, as well as carrying out some projects in other countries such as Qatar and Chile. It undertakes building and civil works and engineering, with an increasing focus on segments such as healthcare buildings, hotels and commercial buildings.
• Hochtief Concessions: Includes both airport concessions and PPP (Public Private Partnership) concessions. Hochtief participates in the airports for Athens, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Sydney, Budapest and Tirana, maintaining an active focus on the search for new investment opportunities. In PPP Solutions, the portfolio is mainly made up of concessions for motorways in Germany, Austria, Greece and Chile and social infrastructures in Germany, the United Kingdom and Ireland. During 2010, in collaboration with Flatiron, it also started activity in the North American market.
• Hochtief Real Estate: Develops, executes and sells real estate projects, management and support services for the properties.
• Hochtief Services: Engages in integrated management of properties and installations, mainly in the industrial area, and carries out projects for efficient and responsible use of energy.

 

Hochtief is to reorganise its divisional structure as of 2011, with Hochtief Europe, Hochtief Real Estate and Hochtief Services passing to the new Hochtief Europe division, with which the Group’s structure will be distributed into three large geographical divisions plus the Concessions area.

Hochtief ended 2010 with an order book of 47,486 million euros, of which 92% correspond to projects outside Germany. This order book figure represents coverage of 28,3 months of sales.