Asfinag

"To dispel these reservations, Haselsteiner announced in 2004 that all concession and operator consortia would be separated from the Strabag group and newly consolidated in A-Way. In addition to the planned entry into the domestic truck toll system, this also affected stakes in the operating companies of the A2 motorway in Poland (from Frankfurt/Oder to Warsaw) and the M5 in Hungary (from Budapest to Röszke at the southern national border) at that time. A-Way was declared an equal holding alongside Strabag, thus becoming a “mixed group,” as Haselsteiner explained. To signal this, BIBAG (Bauindustrie Beteiligungs AG) was renamed FIMAG (Finanz Industrie Management AG). Ultimately, the separation of road construction and road management only took place on paper, so that Asfinag remained concerned and took over Europass and thus also the operation of the toll system 100 percent itself in 2005, even though the contract with the Italians had been signed for a ten-year term. The new owners renamed the system GO Maut – a name it still bears today. The designation Europass reverted to Autostrade International."

"With the Kirchner Holding, another medium-sized German construction company was acquired a few weeks later, which was primarily active in Poland and was intended to strengthen Strabag’s position in that country. Additionally, the new subsidiary had a focus on the future sector of environmental technology. In Austria, the Haselsteiner Group took over half of the publicly traded Graz-based toll technology expert Efkon. The company had, among other things, designed the Austrian section control systems and supplied 500,000 GO-Boxes for the truck toll system to Asfinag. This allowed Strabag to enter into the operation of the Austrian toll system through the backdoor—a belated satisfaction for Haselsteiner. The Styrians were also the main suppliers for the German truck toll system. “The acquisition enables Strabag to position us as a full-service provider of state-of-the-art infrastructure facilities and toll systems, from design to implementation to operation,” the head of the group expressed satisfaction."