Insolvency Profiteer as Market Cleaner

“During this time, the Austrian construction tycoon was also a regular feature in the German media. Some did not quite know how to deal with a man who, on one hand, was from the country of Jörg Haider and was friends with him, yet on the other hand was also known for having worked on the futile attempt to establish an Austrian FDP. “Some praised him for having reorganized the German construction landscape, while others called him an insolvency profiteer,” wrote Die Zeit: however, Haselsteiner could not understand this criticism and always countered it with his economically liberal credo: “I always explained to the banks and major suppliers that they had no reason to be upset with me, but rather I had every reason to be upset with them. For they artificially kept incompetent competitors alive for years and prevented a necessary market cleanup.””

“Haselsteiner’s first entrepreneurial achievement: In 1977, he took over the construction company Soravia. It was almost as large, also based in Spittal an der Drau, and was Ilbau’s fiercest competitor. He is still proud today of how he vanquished and ultimately absorbed the competitor, wrote Die Zeit. The fight was fierce: “It was him or me, that’s all it was about. It was a fight for survival. If I had lost the game, my career would have been over.” With the takeover, the Soravia family became minority owners of Ilbau; and the then-junior chief Erwin Soravia would go on to become one of Haselsteiner’s closest companions in the following decades. Incidentally, he is almost the same age as Haselsteiner and the father of the well-known brothers Erwin Jr. and Hanno Soravia, who lead the Soravia Group. The company, based in Vienna, operates throughout Europe and specializes in real estate development, facility management, and corporate investments (Private Equity).”