VIAG

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VIAG AG

logo
legal form Corporation
founding March 7, 1923
resolution 2000
Reason for dissolution fusion
Seat Munich

The VIAG AG (originally United Industrial enterprises AG ) was recently in Munich resident publicly listed conglomerate . Until the mid-1990s the active seat was in Bonn and before that in Berlin . In 2000, the VIAG with the similarly structured was VEBA group to E.ON merged.

Foundation and time up to the Second World War

VIAG was founded on March 7, 1923 in Berlin as an umbrella company for previously directly held industrial holdings of the German Reich . The state involvement was a consequence of the war economy of the First World War and was justified with the autarky policy of the time .

VIAG's original business areas were the generation of electrical energy and its industrial use:

During the National Socialist era, both energy generation and aluminum production increased massively, and new power plants and aluminum smelters (including the Mattigwerk in Ranshofen) were built. This was also due to the exploitation of thousands of forced laborers. VIAG companies such as VAW tried hard to assign forced laborers, also for reasons of cost. According to the historian Manfred Pohl, the companies had "an above-average proportion of forced laborers". Around 20,000 forced laborers were deployed in the VAW aluminum smelters alone.

Owner of the Federal Republic of Germany

The shares in VIAG were transferred to the Federal Republic of Germany when the Basic Law entered into force in accordance with Article 134 of the Basic Law . Until the mid-1980s, the investments continued to focus on the core industrial areas of energy, aluminum and chemistry.

The holding strategy largely corresponded to risk-avoiding asset management. Before privatization began, the VIAG Group had over 100 companies; in 1986 they achieved a consolidated turnover of more than DM 8.6 billion and a consolidated annual surplus of DM 164 million. In 1986 the first step towards privatization took place. In this IPO, 40 percent of the shares were sold at a price of DM 165.00 per unit. In 1988, the Federal Republic of Germany also sold the remaining shares via the stock exchange at a price of DM 210 per unit.

After privatization

In order to stabilize the ownership structures in the conglomerate VIAG after the full privatization, Bayernwerk, which at the time was 40 percent owned by VIAG and 60 percent by the Free State of Bavaria, gradually acquired a 25 percent stake in VIAG via the stock exchange. The result was a minority cross-shareholding by VIAG and Bayernwerk and, as a result, a jointly coordinated group policy.

Active portfolio management was now carried out. Numerous holdings were often acquired in a short period of time, mostly mostly together with Bayernwerk: Didier-Werke , Computer 2000 , Klöckner & Co , Gerresheimer Glashütte , PWA, Schmalbach-Lubeca , Kuehne + Nagel , Th. Goldschmidt , Isar-Amperwerke . The expansion strategy was supported benevolently by the stock exchange through several capital increases. During the last capital increase in 1996, the new shares were taken from the market at DM 490 per unit. However, some of the investments were sold again after a few years for portfolio reasons .

In 1994 VIAG took over the majority of the capital in Bayernwerk from the Free State of Bavaria. In return, the Free State received a 25 percent stake in VIAG and a cash settlement. In addition, the seat was moved to Munich. With a consolidated turnover of 42 billion DM, VIAG was one of the ten largest industrial companies in Germany in the following year.

In 1997 VIAG received the fourth German mobile radio license , which was marketed under the name Viag Interkom (today O 2 ).

From 1998 to 2003, Gerald Hennenhöfer , who had previously been Head of the Reactor Safety Department at the Federal Environment Ministry , was the company's chief representative for economic policy. For Viag he led the negotiations with the red-green federal government on the nuclear phase-out and signed the agreements on the nuclear consensus .

Merger to form E.ON

For fear of hostile takeovers with subsequent break-up, VIAG merged with VEBA to form E.ON on September 27, 2000 . In addition, it was the common goal of the two similarly structured merger partners to form a new, globally strong energy group instead of the two previous conglomerate groups and to sell the other industrial business areas. VIAG-Energiebeteiligungen are now part of E.ON and have been given corresponding new company names. The VAW was at the 2002 Norsk Hydro sold. The VIAG subsidiary SKW Trostberg was merged with the former VEBA subsidiary Degussa-Hüls to form the “new Degussa”, which is now Evonik Degussa . All other industrial holdings acquired in previous years have also been sold by E.ON in the meantime.

Literature & web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Manfred Pohl: VIAG Aktiengesellschaft 1923-1998. From state company to international group . Piper, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-492-04036-5 .
  2. ↑ Peter Belli: The VAW case - the Viag subsidiary shifts responsibility . In: The time . No. 48 , November 25, 1999.
  3. ↑ Energy and Power ( Memento of the original from August 19, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.berlinonline.de 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. Berliner Zeitung of July 3, 2007, accessed on March 20, 2011