Spanish construction company ACS has gained a key stake in rival Hochtief, after it announced it now holds more than 30 per cent of shares in the German group.
The stake represents a key stage in ACS’s strategy to take full control of Hochtief, because it can now buy Hochtief shares on the open market and accumulate more than half of the company. ACS announced its bid for full control of Hochtief last September.
At the time, ACS, or Actividades de Construcción & Servicios, already held a stake of just under 30 per cent in Hochtief but its aim to gain control was rejected by Hochtief management.
ACS is expected to amass a further 20 per cent of Hochtief this year, in order to gain absolute control.
ACS has said that it intends to consolidate its balance sheet with Hochtief’s, and leverage its increased size to pursue larger infrastructure projects. However it also denies any plans to influence the German company’s operations and has said it would not relocate Hochtief's headquarters or fire any of its 11,000 workers.
If successful in its takeover ambitions, ACS—already Spain’s largest builder—would become the largest construction company in the Western world. The company’s prime interest appears to lie in broadening its global presence.
Only about a quarter of ACS’s turnover currently comes from abroad; however Hochtief has a broad international footprint, with more than 85 per cent of its turnover being generated by overseas subsidiaries such as Turner in the US and Leighton in Australia.
On Monday, the Spanish stock exchange said ACS had also acquired more than 20 per cent of the national utility Iberdrola.
