WABAG

VA TECH WABAG Ltd.
legal form	Limited
ISIN	INE956G01038
founding	1924 in Breslau
Seat	Chennai , India
management	Rajiv Mittal ( CEO )
Number of employees	2,000 (2014/15)
sales	24.3515 billion rupees (2014/15)
Branch	Plant construction, water treatment
Website	www.wabagindia.com

The VA TECH WABAG Ltd. is a globally active Indian group of companies specializing in the construction of environmental engineering systems with a focus on water and wastewater. The company name does contain the word “ WABAG ”, but the former medium-sized German company WABAG, from which this group word was originally taken over, is no longer active in Germany after the last successor company was sold in 2004. The former German company WABAG, like the current international VA Tech WABAG Group, also specialized in the construction of environmental systems with a focus on water and wastewater at home and abroad.

Like almost all former larger German companies and group subsidiaries or their departments that were active in the field of plant construction for water and wastewater at home and abroad up to the turn of the millennium, WABAG has now also ceased its business activities in Germany. In the following, the two chapters “former WABAG” and “current VA TECH WABAG” describe the development of these two companies.

history

Former WABAG

Summary

The history of WABAG is an example of the upheavals in German industry over the past few decades. WABAG was founded as an independent company in Breslau in 1924 and rebuilt as "" Wabag "Wasserreinigungsbau Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH" after the Second World War in Kulmbach . In the second half of the last century it was one of the largest and most important German companies in the field of water technology systems, which developed many processes and system components and put them into practice. In the course of its history, for example, WABAG applied for 120 patents.

With the entry of Deutsche Babcock in 1973 and the complete takeover in 1986/87, WABAG lost its independence and became a subsidiary of Babcock. The name of this subsidiary was "" Wabag "Wassertechnische Anlagen GmbH". After the complete takeover by Deutsche Babcock, WABAG's business in Germany was initially continued as a subsidiary. By the mid-1990s, some branches abroad and, for example, in 1992 in Germany the subsidiary "Wabag Leipzig GmbH", based in Markkleeberg, were founded. This subsidiary relocated its headquarters from Markkleeberg to Zwenkau in 1996 .

In Germany, Wabag became a subsidiary of "BOAG Balcke-Dürr AG, Ratingen" in 1995. The latter belonged to the Deutsche Babcock. In 1999 Deutsche Babcock merged with the VA Technologie Group in Austria. As part of the reorganization of this new group, "VA TECH WABAG GmbH & Co. KG Kulmbach" was founded on August 10, 2000. Just one day later, this new company was merged with the subsidiary "Wabag Leipzig GmbH" to form "VA TECH WABAG GmbH & Co. KG Leipzig" based in Zwenkau. Another change was the merger with “VA TECH Esmil GmbH & Co. KG Ratingen” on August 21, 2000. Before the German subsidiary of "VA TECH Austria" was dissolved, Wabag Leipzig, which was formed in 2000, changed its name on January 14, 2004 to "VA TECH WABAG Deutschland GmbH, Zwenkau".

When the Siemens group took over the VA Technologie group in 2005 , the German subsidiary VA TECH Deutschland GmbH, Zwenkau, including the French VA TECH activities, was sold to the French VEOLIA group . The dissolved "VA TECH WABAG Deutschland GmbH, Zwenkau" was deleted from the commercial register on January 14, 2004. This was followed by the spin-off and formation of "Wabag Wassertechnik GmbH, Zwenkau" on July 22, 2004 from VA TECH Germany and the entry of this spin-off in the commercial register on September 3, 2004.

The last successor company in Germany with direct links to Wabag has been part of the Veolia Group since 2004 and was its subsidiary. All other VA TECH water and wastewater activities were transferred in 2007 from Siemens Austria to VA TECH WABAG India Ltd. passed on.

On February 18, 2005, "Wabag Krüger GmbH" was formed. This Krüger Wabag GmbH was a subsidiary of the holding company of "Veolia Water Systems Deutschland Holding GmbH, Siershahn" on September 14, 2005 and entered in the Leipzig Commercial Register on November 25, 2005. The parent company was Veolia Water , in which the worldwide activities of Veolia for the "water sector" are combined. After the sale to Veolia, Krüger Wabag GmbH continued to exist as Krüger Wabag GmbH and in 2005 became the subsidiary of "VWS Deutschland GmbH". In 2009, Krüger Wabag GmbH was merged with the company "Elga Berkefeld GmbH, Celle", which at that time already belonged to Veolia Water, to form "VWS Deutschland GmbH". The latter was active until 2015 and offered water technology systems in and from Germany.

In the second half of 2015, Veolia Water's water activities in Germany were reorganized. The previous companies “VWS Deutschland GmbH”, “VWS Aquafab GmbH”, “Aquantis GmbH” and “PMT Plastik-Metallo-Technologie GmbH” were merged under the company name “ Veolia Water Technologies Deutschland GmbH ”. The merger of VWS Deutschland GmbH was entered in the commercial register on September 10, 2015.

Since 2009, the former WABAG and its successor companies are no longer active in Germany under the name Wabag. However, Krüger Wabag was not deleted from the commercial register as a trade name until 2014. However, there is a company that employees Wabag was the former location of the WABAG Kulmbach by some former newly founded in 2003 and still water technical equipment as " Water construction company Kulmbach GmbH ( WBG ) " sells.

The following is a more detailed chronology of the development of Wabag to the international Wabag and its end in Germany.

founding

On August 1, 1924, the businessman Max Reeder founded "WABAG Wasserreinigungsbau Ges. MbH" in Breslau . The business objective was "the creation of systems for the treatment of water which in its raw state is not suitable for use as drinking water or for industry". In 1925, the young engineer Alfred Kretzschmar came to WABAG and soon rose to the position of senior engineer and authorized signatory.

One of the company's new developments was the invention of the WABAG filter nozzle. The WABAG gravel filter was presented at the brewery exhibition in Munich in 1926 . The improvement in technology for filter systems enabled a monopoly in the construction of large filter systems. The development of the rapid filter systems followed in 1934.

Prewar years

In the years 1934 to 1939, processing plants for chemical plants, municipalities, dams, waterworks, paper mills and cellulose wool were built. Abroad, open filter systems were built in Ankara and Izmir, a waterworks in Prague , a pressure filter system in Rio de Janeiro and the deacidification systems in Athens and Rorschach / Switzerland .

At the end of 1939, WABAG in Neudorfer Strasse (today Komandorska Street ) in Breslau had grown to over 100 employees. During the war, temporary solutions and reconstructions of destroyed drinking water systems became the main task. By 1944, 60 bath water treatments and the first desalination using ion exchange technology had been implemented. During the war years, systems for the treatment of boiler feed water and cooling water and for iron removal and manganese removal from raw water were built.

Towards the end of the war in early 1945, the WABAG buildings and workshops were completely destroyed in the fighting for Breslau. The company's founder, Max Reder, has since been considered lost.

Post-war years

After the war, the rebuilding of the company began in Kulmbach in June 1945 under the leadership of Alfred Kretzschmar. It began with the repair of bombed water treatment plants. The construction of the Wabag took place on an area in the Lichtenfelser Straße that had been allocated by the American military government . In 1949, 40 people were employed again. The lack of steel at the time led to the development and construction of the first concrete filters for water purification.

The economic boom

In the years 1951 to 1958 a boom in the construction of water technology systems followed. The focus was on drinking water treatment , which is used worldwide, e.g. B. 1954 in Karachi and Lahore , for the treatment of river water became the focus. In 1954 the new administration and operations building in Kulmbach was completed and the workforce had grown to over 100 people. WABAG acted as general contractor for the construction of around 200 indoor swimming pools in Germany. At the end of the 1950s there were significant exports to Italy , especially for the porcelain industry, as well as full desalination plants for steelworks. Notable patents from this time around 1957 are new developments for pressure filter, nozzle plates and the continued softening of water.

The 1960s

After Alfred Kretzschmar's sudden death in 1963, his son Wolfgang took over the company. He was particularly interested in the development of new processes and technologies. At this point in time around 200 people were employed and incoming orders were around DM 20 million per year. For the 40th anniversary in 1964, around 95% of all treatment plants for dam water in Germany were designed and built by WABAG.

The 1970s, the beginning of the group membership

At the beginning of the 1970s, the workforce in Kulmbach had risen to a total of 350 employees and incoming orders amounted to 80 million DM per year. During this time, the construction of flue gas desulphurisation systems (FGD) began , which at that time had to be built by the energy suppliers in Germany. Appropriate systems were supplied to treat the wastewater that was generated in these systems. The group years began with the entry of Deutsche Babcock in 1973. This new affiliation to the Babcock Group was also mentioned in the press outside of the business press. In the same year Karl-Helmut Werkmann from Deutsche Babcock joined the commercial management in order to steer the fortunes of the company for the next 20 years. Under Werkmann, WABAG became the main supplier for drinking water treatment in Algeria . Also in the Turkey and to Iran WABAG has exported its investments.

The 1980s to 2000

In the 1980s the company also started operations in Africa , Eastern Europe , Central and South America . In Germany, the years 1982 to 1986 were characterized by the installation of wastewater treatment for flue gas desulphurisation systems in power plants. WABAG also supplied the technical systems for leisure pools, especially in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg . In cooperation with the Karlsruhe Nuclear Research Center , the Carix process was developed to reduce hardness , sulfate and nitrate in water. As part of the license for this process, WABAG built the first partial desalination system for drinking water for the “Zweckverband WVG Mühlbach” in 1985. Further innovations of this time were the combination block process for swimming pool water treatment with ozone . The production of reverse osmosis systems for the production of ultrapure water for the microelectronics industry began.

After the reunification of Germany, the modernization of the municipal drinking and sewage systems in the area of the former GDR was particularly necessary and there were correspondingly many projects. This led to the founding of the subsidiary "Wabag Leipzig GmbH" in 1992. For business abroad, branches followed in Salzburg in 1993, in Brno in 1994 and 1995, establishment of a presence in India together with the local Balcke-Dürr and Water Technologies Ltd. Also in 1995 followed the acquisition of the British "Water Engineering Ltd." and the company "STEP" in Belgium including their branch in Tunisia.

In 1999 the Babcock Group merged with the Austrian VA TECHNOLOGIE Group. Wabag became a subsidiary of this new technology group as "VA TECH WABAG GmbH".

After 2000

In 2002, VA TECH WABAG GmbH's sales amounted to € 275 million and decreased to € 205 million in 2003 with high operating losses. In 2004, the VA Tech Group, the sole owner of WABAG since 1999, sold the locations in Germany and France to Veolia and retained both the Austrian VA TECH WABAG GmbH and the other foreign subsidiaries, which continued to operate under the WABAG suffix.

In 2005 VA Technologie was merged with the Siemens group. In the same year, VA Tech WABAG Ltd. merged under Siemens. in India with the “ICIC Venture” of the Indian ICIC Bank. In 2007 Siemens sold its shares in VA Tech WABAG Ltd. to the Indian ICICI Bank . After the change of VA TECH India Ltd. to become a joint stock company in 2010, the shares of this parent company have been traded on the Indian stock exchange since then.

Current VA TECH WABAG GmbH

As already mentioned, the parent company of the current VA TECH WABAG Group is the stock corporation "VA TECH WABAG Ltd." in Chennai, India. This has subsidiaries around the world to which "VA TECH WABAG GmbH" in Vienna, Austria also belongs. Of the other subsidiaries listed below, the one in Tunisia had already been taken over by Wabag and remained with the VA Tech Group. In Europe there are subsidiaries in Romania, Switzerland, Spain and the Czech Republic. The subsidiaries outside Europe are in Egypt, Algeria, China, the Philippines, Tunisia and Turkey.

VA Tech originated from the company "Julius Overhoff GmbH", which was founded in 1868 in Vienna, Austria. The further development of this small company led to the takeover in 1987 by "Simmering Graz Pauker AG (SGP)". Under the SGP resp. SGP-VA (1989) resp. Austrian Energy & Environment (AE&E, 1996) was followed by further takeovers of the environmental division of “Waagner Biro AG” in 1992, as well as the environmental activities of “Sulzer Chemtech AG” in 1996 and the takeover of Tetra Industrietechnik, which specialized in desalination. Furthermore, in 1997 the takeover of the RO desalination plants division of "Elin Energieversorgung" and the acquisition of the majority in "PURAQUA" in 1997 were carried out. In 1999, "VA Technologie AG" took over the WABAG Group from Deutsche Babcock AG. The water technology division of AE&E resp. VA Technologie AG and WABAG as the water technology division of Deutsche Babcock AG form VA TECH WABAG GmbH, a 100% subsidiary of VA Technologie AG. The further development then led to "VA TECH WABAG Ltd." in Chennai, to which VA TECH WABAG GmbH, Vienna-Austria, belongs as a subsidiary.

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c Eva Steindorfer: The new middle class makes the water supply affordable . In: DiePresse.com , 23 August 2012.
↑ ^a ^b Archived copy ( memento of the original dated November 23, 2015 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@ 2
↑ ^a ^b Online version of VA TECH WABAG GmbH , under ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 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@ 2
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Commercial Register of the District Court of Kulmbach, in: Sheet HRB 264 .
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e online version history of VA TECH WABAG GmbH , under
^ Commercial register of the Leipzig District Court, in: Sheet HRB 4822 .
↑ Commercial Register of Ratingen Local Court, in: Sheet HRA 1092 .
↑ ^a ^b Commercial Register of the District Court of Ravensburg, in: Sheet HRA 1448 .
↑ Commercial Register of the Local Court of Leipzig, in: Sheet HRB 20823 , p. 2.
↑ ^a ^b Commercial Register Local Court Leipzig, in: Sheet HRB 20823 , p. 3.
^ Commercial register of the local court of Lüneburg, in: Sheet HRB 202160 , p. 1.
^ Commercial register of the Leipzig District Court, in: Sheet HRB 20823 , p. 5.
^ Online version of VWS Deutschland GmbH
↑ Internet access for Veolia Water Technologies Deutschland GmbH
↑ Commercial Register of the Local Court of Lüneburg, in: Sheet HRB 20823 , p. 3.
^ Commercial register of the district court of Lüneburg, in: Sheet HRB 202160 , p. 3.
↑ Internet version of the "Wasser Bau Gesellschaft Kulmbach mbH (WBG)"
↑ Environment: Like mushrooms . In: Der Spiegel , edition 7/1974.
↑ Kulmbach Commercial Register, in: Sheet HRB 264 , entry from January 20, 1994.
↑ Hagen, Klaus; Hoell, Wolfgang; in: The Carix process - a technology that has been tried and tested for many years , 2009, special issue GWF Wasser Abwasser, pp. W44 to W48, ISSN 0016-3651 .

↑ ^a ^b Most of the Wabag water division sold . In: derstandard.at , October 12, 2004.

↑ VA Tech Wabag receives an order worth millions from Egypt . In: industriemagazin.at , July 20, 2015.

Remarks

↑ The many changes that Wabag experienced between 1995 and 2004, including its subsidiaries in Germany, have been given somewhat simplified. As an indication, reference is made to the many changes in the company's headquarters and the responsibilities of the local courts with their commercial registers. The original headquarters in Kulmbach were followed by Bayreuth, Leipzig, Berlin-Charlottenburg, Bremen, Ismaning, Ravensberg, Siershahn and Lüneburg.

[DP2012-08-23-1] Eva Steindorfer: The new middle class makes the water supply affordable . In: DiePresse.com , 23 August 2012.

[ar2015-2] Archived copy ( memento of the original dated November 23, 2015 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@ 2

[Onlinefassung_der_VA_TECH_WABAG_GmbH-3] Online version of VA TECH WABAG GmbH , under ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 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@ 2

[Blatt_HRB_264-4] Commercial Register of the District Court of Kulmbach, in: Sheet HRB 264 .

[Onlinefassung_Geschichte_der_VA_TECH_WABAG_GmbH-5] online version history of VA TECH WABAG GmbH , under

[Blatt_HRB_4822-6] Commercial register of the Leipzig District Court, in: Sheet HRB 4822 .

[7] Commercial Register of Ratingen Local Court, in: Sheet HRA 1092 .

[Blatt_HRA_1448-8] Commercial Register of the District Court of Ravensburg, in: Sheet HRA 1448 .

[10] Commercial Register of the Local Court of Leipzig, in: Sheet HRB 20823 , p. 2.

[Blatt_HRB_20823_3-11] Commercial Register Local Court Leipzig, in: Sheet HRB 20823 , p. 3.

[12] Commercial register of the local court of Lüneburg, in: Sheet HRB 202160 , p. 1.

[13] Commercial register of the Leipzig District Court, in: Sheet HRB 20823 , p. 5.

[14] Online version of VWS Deutschland GmbH

[15] Internet access for Veolia Water Technologies Deutschland GmbH

[16] Commercial Register of the Local Court of Lüneburg, in: Sheet HRB 20823 , p. 3.

[17] Commercial register of the district court of Lüneburg, in: Sheet HRB 202160 , p. 3.

[18] Internet version of the "Wasser Bau Gesellschaft Kulmbach mbH (WBG)"

[19] Environment: Like mushrooms . In: Der Spiegel , edition 7/1974.

[Blatt_HRB_264_1994-20] Kulmbach Commercial Register, in: Sheet HRB 264 , entry from January 20, 1994.

[21] Hagen, Klaus; Hoell, Wolfgang; in: The Carix process - a technology that has been tried and tested for many years , 2009, special issue GWF Wasser Abwasser, pp. W44 to W48, ISSN 0016-3651 .

[ds2004-10-12-22] Most of the Wabag water division sold . In: derstandard.at , October 12, 2004.

[23] VA Tech Wabag receives an order worth millions from Egypt . In: industriemagazin.at , July 20, 2015.

[9] The many changes that Wabag experienced between 1995 and 2004, including its subsidiaries in Germany, have been given somewhat simplified. As an indication, reference is made to the many changes in the company's headquarters and the responsibilities of the local courts with their commercial registers. The original headquarters in Kulmbach were followed by Bayreuth, Leipzig, Berlin-Charlottenburg, Bremen, Ismaning, Ravensberg, Siershahn and Lüneburg.