Böhler-Uddeholm
| Böhler-Uddeholm AG
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| legal form | Corporation |
| founding | 1894 |
| Seat | Vienna , Austria |
| management | Franz Rotter (CEO) |
| Number of employees | 14,324 (December 31, 2006) |
| sales | EUR 3.090 billion (2006) |
| Branch | Metal processing |
| Website | www.bohler-uddeholm.com |
The Böhler-Uddeholm AG ( BUAG ) is a precious and tool steel maker with headquarters in Vienna , Austria . Today the group of companies comprises the three brands Böhler, Uddeholm and Buderus and belongs to the voestalpine group.
Company history
Foundation and history until 1945
The brothers Albert and Emil Böhler come from an old Frankfurt trading family. While their brothers from their first marriage took over the family business, Albert and Emil decided to start their own company. So they traveled to Styria in 1870 and traded with the k. k. Baron Mayr-Melnhof's privileged cast steel factory in Kapfenberg signed an exclusive agency agreement for their steel products. Subsequently, the company Böhler & Co. , "a business for the exclusive sale of Steyermärkischen types of steel" was entered in Vienna in the commercial register, whereby Georg Kiefer was named as a partner .
The factory in Kapfenberg has a long tradition; Hammersmiths on the lower reaches of the Stübming and Thörlbach in Winkl , a district of Kapfenberg, are proven as early as the 15th century . At first these were closely linked to the name of the Pögl family. After the decline of the iron industry, the hammers in Kapfenberg were bought by Franz Mayr, who came from a rural background, and brought to a new heyday through the introduction of the latest technologies by his son, for which he was ennobled as "Baron Mayr von Melnhof". In 1872 he sold the work to the k. k. priv. Innerberger Hauptgewerkschaft , in 1882 it was sold on to the newly founded Österreichisch-Alpine Montangesellschaft , whereby the sole agency rights for the steel products remained with the Böhler brothers. The six-pointed star (Böhlerstern) of the Mayr'schen Gussstahlfabrik in Kapfenberg was adopted as the company logo .
In order to be able to react even faster to orders, the Bruckbacher-Hütte in Rosenau am Sonntagberg in the Ybbstal was bought by the arms manufacturer Josef Werndl in 1872 , making a rolling and forging mill available. The steel blocks were still obtained from Kapfenberg. In the same year, the brothers Albert and Emil Böhler decided to take on the young Berlin businessman Friedrich Wilhelm Foerster as a new partner in the company, reflecting the increased need for capital . A little later, the k. k. Bought a privileged file and cast steel factory in Hainfeld in Lower Austria and soon afterwards this production was also relocated to the Ybbstal valley, creating the Böhlerwerk village . As a result, machining tools of the same quality could now also be offered in addition to steel.
In 1875 Friedrich Böhler - the youngest of the four brothers, who, like Otto Böhler and Friedrich Foerster, had trained in England - joined the company as an additional partner. Emil Böhler, the older of the two company founders, died in January 1882 as a result of an operation.
The distribution channels were expanded and in 1879 agencies were opened in Hamburg , Copenhagen , Moscow , Petersburg and Kiev . In 1886 further agencies followed in Paris , Berlin , Frankfurt am Main , Leipzig , Düsseldorf and Stuttgart as well as in Sheffield , the headquarters of British steel production, whereby the British Mint and the British Navy were particularly proud to count among the customers. It was first delivered to Japan in 1889 .
Finally, in 1894 - as a result of a restructuring of the Alpine-Montan-Gesellschaft - the Kapfenberg smelter was bought for the enormous sum of 800,000 guilders, which enabled the company to produce its own steel. At that time, the work was being managed by the steel expert Fridolin Reiser - a student of the Montanistik specialist Peter Tunner .
In 1896 agencies were opened in Budapest and Prague . In 1899 the last of the Böhler brothers, Albert Böhler , died in Vienna. In Berlin which was Böhler AG founded. In 1907 a sales warehouse was opened in Sydney and in 1914 Böhler built a steelworks in Meerbusch (Lower Rhine) on the city limits to Düsseldorf .
From 1917 church bells were made from cast steel in the Kapfenberg plant. During the First World War , bronze bells had to be delivered for material extraction, but steel bells were not. Therefore, the demand was initially very high, and Böhler rose to become the largest bell foundry in Austria in the interwar period. When, a few years after the war, most churches had enough bells again and the demand decreased, the bell casting was stopped around 1926. Since these bells did not have to be delivered during the Second World War , numerous copies have been preserved, but some have now been replaced by bronze bells.
With the annexation of Austria to Germany, Böhler became part of the National Socialist armaments industry and merged with the other Austrian steel manufacturers.
post war period
Immediately after the end of the war, in May 1945, the Kapfenberg works were occupied by Soviet soldiers. While they dismantled most of the machines in the plants in the area ( Deuchendorf , St. Marein ), the main plant in Kapfenberg was largely spared. Production started again in June 1945. After about six weeks, the British Army replaced the Soviet occupiers at the end of July 1945. With the Nationalization Act of 1946, the company was subordinated to the Austrian state as former “German property” ( nationalized industry ) and the merger with the other Austrian steel producers was repealed.
In the decades that followed, the company wrote mostly losses that had to be covered by the state. In 1973, under the Kreisky II government , all of the major Austrian steel producers - Böhler, VÖEST , Alpine Montan AG and Schoeller-Bleckmann - were merged into a single steel group called Voest-Alpine AG . As early as 1975, however, a restructuring took place: Böhler, Schoeller-Bleckmann and the Steirische Gußstahlwerke AG in Judenburg were merged to form the United Edelstahlwerke ( VEW ), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Voest-Alpine AG.
In 1980 the steel industry fell into a crisis worldwide . Due to the resulting enormous losses, the then Federal Minister for Public Economy Ferdinand Lacina removed the entire board and put an end to the parties' proporz , which had previously made corporate decisions dependent on political discretion, with a new legal basis.
In 1988, the Vereinigte Edelstahlwerke was dissolved because of the economic problems - the company, however, remained part of the Voest-Alpine group. Today's Schoeller-Bleckmann Oilfield Equipment was spun off . In 1991 Voest-Alpine bought the Swedish Uddeholm group and merged it with Böhler. CEO of the new company Böhler-Uddeholm was Claus Raidl .
privatization
| Share capital | EUR 102,000,000 |
| shares | 51,000,000 |
| shareholder | proportion of |
|---|---|
| voestalpine | 90.24% |
| Institutional investors in Germany and abroad as well as free float | 9.76% |
In 1995 the Voest-Alpine Group was dissolved in its previous form and the now Böhler-Uddeholm AG was listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange . The state share in the company, supported by Österreichische Industrieholding AG ÖIAG , fell from 100 to 72.7% in the course of the IPO. In 1996 the state's share was reduced to the blocking minority of 25 percent, and in 2003, complete privatization followed. In 2003, Böhler-Uddeholm took over the stainless steel plant in Brazil from Sidenor . In 2005, Edelstahlwerke Buderus AG was taken over by Robert Bosch GmbH . They were split up into Buderus Edelstahl GmbH , Buderus Edelstahl Band GmbH and Buderus Edelstahl Schmiedetechnik GmbH . In the meantime, Buderus Edelstahl and Buderus Edelstahl Band have been merged again into one company in 2010.
In 2001 a group led by Rudolf Fries acquired a blocking minority of 25.1% in the company. Their stake was reduced to 20.95% by 2007, but this Austrian group remained the company's largest shareholder.
In 2007, it became known that the previous core shareholder, Rudolf Fries, was planning to sell his shares. After initially inexplicably strong price fluctuations in mid-March, the investor group CVC Capital Partners announced that they wanted to acquire 50 percent of the company. This was followed by public statements from politicians and entrepreneurs who openly spoke out against a foreign takeover and demanded an Austrian investor, which triggered allegations of protectionism in the foreign press . A few days later, the Böhler-Uddeholm board announced that it was against a takeover by CVC, which then withdrew.
One day later, on March 29, 2007, voestalpine announced that it wanted to take over the shares from Rudolf Fries and also buy up the shares in free float . Since the beginning of June 2008 Voestalpine has held more than 90% of the Böhler shares and the balance sheet figures have already been incorporated into the company. A squeeze-out took place on the stock exchange , and voestalpine offered Böhler investors € 70.26 per share.
Since June 23, 2008 Böhler-Uddeholm is no longer listed on the stock exchange. The Lower Austrian energy supplier EVN has been added to the ATX in place of Böhler .
In September 2009 voestalpine restructured the Böhler-Uddeholm AG. The previous Welding Consumables Division was then assigned to the Railway Systems Division of voestalpine AG. The previous Division Precision Strip was part of voestalpine Division profile shape . The Böhler-Uddeholm divisions High Performance Metals and Special Forgings form the new voestalpine stainless steel division . After Claus Raidl left the company , Franz Rotter became the new CEO on January 1, 2011.
Locations
The Böhler-Uddeholm Group has numerous subsidiaries and locations worldwide:
In Austria
In the rest of Europe
|
Outside of Europe
|
Awards
- 1972 Gebrüder Böhler GmbH: State award design for a demolition hammer
- State award for Boehler Uddeholm Precision Strip
- State award for Boehler welding technology
literature
- O. Böhler: Wolfram and Rapid steel. 1904.
- 1870-1970. 100 years of Böhler Edelstahl. Festschrift Böhler, 1970.
- Josef Neuhold: The challenge of fluctuations in demand in production planning. A model for the measurement, visualization and analysis of primary demand fluctuations based on Böhler Schmiedetechnik GmbH & Co KG. 1st edition, VDM, Saarbrücken 2010, ISBN 978-3-639-24675-9 .
Web links
- ^ Böhler profile ; Company Böhler PROFIL GmbH . Commercial register data Creditreform / firmenabc.at
- ↑ a b Böhler-Uddeholm Precision Strip
- ↑ Böhler Edelstahl
- ↑ Böhler Schmiedetechnik (Böhler Forging)
- ↑ Böhler welding technology (Böhler Welding)
- ^ Böhler Technik Center
- ↑ Böhler-Bleche Mürzzuschlag
- ^ Buderus Edelstahl GmbH
- Entry on Böhler Werke in the Austria Forum (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b key figures . Böhler-Uddeholm AG
- ↑ Böhler-Werke , on Denkmalgalerie Meerbusch, accessed on January 23, 2017
- ^ Jörg Wernisch: Glockenkunde von Österreich , Journal-Verlag, Lienz 2006.
- ^ After the incorporation of Gebr. Böhler & Co. AG in Berlin into Gebr. Böhler & Co. AG Vienna on December 31, 1938, "in connection with the reunification of Austria with the German Reich" (contemporary quote) , all production facilities were in united in the unified company. The company was close to the Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG group in Düsseldorf.
- ↑ Ex-state company on merger course. In: The Standard . March 30, 2007, p. 18
- ↑ Hermann Simon mentions Böhler-Uddeholm at this time in his book of the same name as an example of a " hidden champion ". ( Hidden champions of the 21st century: The strategies of success of unknown world market leaders. Campus, Frankfurt a. M. 2007, ISBN 978-3-593-38380-4 , p. 32)
- ↑ voestalpine 'confident' of gaining 50 pct of Boehler at around 1.8 bln eur . Finanznachrichten.de, 2007-03
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from January 15, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ [1] ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved February 6, 2013
- ↑ Leitbetriebe Steiermark , accessed on February 6, 2013.
