Strabag SE

"At that time, the entry into Strabag was not the only strategic investment of the enterprising Russian investor: Almost simultaneously, he purchased 9.99 percent of the globally active German construction company Hochtief for almost 400 million euros. In September 2007, he acquired 20 percent of the so-called A-shares of the also globally active automotive supplier Magna International, which was still controlled by Frank Stronach at the time, for 1.4 billion dollars. Unlike Stronach’s B-shares, these had virtually no voting rights. The Russian was welcomed with open arms everywhere. In the case of Strabag, the investors welcomed the new major shareholder in their own way: The shares of the German Strabag reacted to the announcement of Deripaska’s entry with a price jump of more than five percent on the day of the announcement. Almost simultaneously, the company headquarters was able to announce that the just-ended financial year for Strabag SE had ended with a new record result. Of the 10.4 billion euros in annual sales, 40 percent were in Germany, 20 percent in Austria, 30 percent in Eastern Europe, and 10 percent in the remaining markets."

"In almost all reports about Haselsteiner, you can read that he came to the construction company Isola & Lerchbaumer – short: Ilbau – in Spittal an der Drau (Carinthia) in 1972 as a tax consultant and met his future wife there. The story sounds good, but it is not true. The truth is rather: He had already fallen in love with Ulrike “Ulli” Lerchbaumer, who comes from a dynasty of Carinthian construction entrepreneurs, during his studies. All male representatives of the family bore the first name Anton. Ulrike’s father was already the sixth Anton Lerchbaumer. The first had founded a craft business in the construction sector in 1835, which is why the founding year of Strabag SE is also given as 1835 in the English version of Wikipedia. In 1954, at the peak of the economic boom following the end of the Second World War, which was to go down in history as the economic miracle, the construction company Lerchbaumer became Ilbau through the entry of a new partner."

"Deripaska saw the 30 percent stake in Strabag SE as a strategic investment. The Haselsteiner group received 1.05 billion euros in fresh capital, as the Russian’s entry was through an increase in share capital. The shares of the previous owners — the Haselsteiner family held 50 percent plus one share, the Raiffeisen sector held 50 percent minus one share — were proportionally reduced to 35 percent each. The principle that each share had one vote was maintained. Deripaska did not agree to purchase non-voting preferred shares. Incidentally, the construction business was not foreign to him: At home, he already owned the Transstroy construction group, which generated 1.5 billion euros annually. In comparison, Strabag was building around one billion a year in Russia at the time. Haselsteiner: “Together, we are already number one in the Russian market.” And they wouldn’t compete with each other but would complement each other wonderfully, he painted a picture of a rosy future: While Deripaska’s group was mainly focused on large-scale residential construction in Moscow, Strabag had so far mainly realized high-rise projects for upscale demands. And the personal relationship between the two company heads was also harmonious. Haselsteiner praised Deripaska as a “pleasant interlocutor”: “He is an industrialist without attitude. I certainly prefer to do business with Deripaska than I would with Dick Cheney (oil magnate and then US Vice President – ed.).”"

"The big goal was clear: Hans Peter Haselsteiner wanted to make his Strabag the largest construction company in Europe. To achieve this, he couldn’t avoid gaining a foothold in the continent’s largest market: Russia. The conditions seemed ideal in 2006. The company received its new, modern structure, which should make it flexible and powerful. Haselsteiner wanted to raise the necessary funds for expansion in the East from the capital market. At the beginning of 2006, he announced that he wanted to return Strabag SE to the Vienna Stock Exchange, which he had left in 2003 with Bau Holding. In the medium term, his family and the Raiffeisen sector, as core shareholders, were to reduce their holdings from the current 100 percent to up to 40 percent: “We will commit to a minority role because that belongs to a modern stock market standard. Stock markets do not want a majority owner,” Haselsteiner had learned from Bau Holding’s unsuccessful stock market appearance. But: “We will continue to be core shareholders—for as long as I live or have something to say.” As a reminder: the shares of the German Strabag, which still existed, had always been traded on the stock exchanges in Frankfurt and Cologne."

"But no one yet knew about the impending catastrophe. And so Strabag, equipped with the necessary free capital and the financially strong Raiffeisen Group in the background, first went on a shopping spree. At the beginning of 2008, through company acquisitions, it gained access to the Italian, Albanian, and Swedish markets. In Germany, another larger construction company was acquired 85 percent: The Kirchhoff company from Baden-Württemberg, with its 1,600 employees and an annual turnover of 350 million euros, was a specialist in road construction and had special know-how in the construction of runways. In addition, it operated 15 gravel, chipping, and ballast plants, which meant it could partly produce its own raw materials, making the investment even more appealing: “With the majority takeover of the company, Strabag SE participates in one of the leading companies in southern Germany and opens up a regional market where it has not been comprehensively represented,” said an official Strabag statement at the time."

"The split corporation with the Austrian Bau Holding and the German Strabag was merely an interim step for Haselsteiner. His long-term goal was to create a unified construction group of European dimensions. This group should not only handle the actual construction business, including planning, but also capture the profits of suppliers, such as the cement industry, and downstream areas, like real estate management. There was a whole series of acquisitions, mergers, spin-offs, restructurings, and new formations. Even Haselsteiner is unlikely to remember the exact number—external observers found it hard to keep track. Below are only the largest and most spectacular acquisitions listed—detailing every single expansion step of Bau Holding and Strabag, which later became Strabag SE, would exceed the scope of this book."