Walter Bau
| Walter Bau AG merges with DYWIDAG
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| legal form | Corporation |
| ISIN | DE0007477507 |
| founding | 1865 (from 1991 as Walter Bau / from 2001 + combined with DYWIDAG) |
| resolution | April 1, 2005 |
| Reason for dissolution | insolvency |
| Seat | Augsburg , Germany |
| Number of employees | about 9,367 (2005) |
| Branch | Construction company |
The Walter Bau AG was a major German construction company and was until its merger with the Heilit + Woerner Bau AG and DYWIDAG , a legally independent company within the Walter Group (Walter-Holding).
In 2000 the Walter Group employed 48,000 people in Germany and abroad and achieved a total construction output of 16.5 billion DM. In 2000, the Walter Group had liquid funds of approx. 2.3 billion DM. DM, the additional hidden reserves came to DM 2.6 billion.
History and corporate structure
In 1978 Ignaz Walter took over the majority of the shares in Thosti Bau AG (formerly Thormann + Stiefel). 10 million DM nominal capital, approx. 360 million DM output, 4,500 employees. In the same year, Walter took over the chairmanship of the board. The restructuring and re-activation of the group began immediately. 1982 Thosti AG's capital increase from 10 million DM to 20 million DM. 600 million DM output, 5,300 employees. In 1983 Thosti Bau AG took over 98% of the shares in Boswau & Knauer AG . This had 20 million nominal capital, 580 million DM output, 6,200 employees.
In 1983 the company Thosti merged with the company Boswau & Knauer with a simultaneous change of name to WTB - Walter Thosti Boswau AG and capital increase from 20 million DM to 40 million DM in 1984. The merged company was now one of the very large construction groups in Germany and achieved an output of 1.3 billion DM and employed 10,700 people. In 1986 the Walter family took over 98% of the shares in Heilit + Woerner Bau AG. 27 million DM nominal capital, 650 million DM output, 6,000 employees. In 1988 Thosti took over 54% of the shares in Züblin AG. 25 million DM nominal capital, 1.1 billion DM construction output, 8,500 employees. WTB changed its name to WB - Walter Bau AG in 1990, increased its capital from DM 40 million to DM 75 million and went public.
In 1991 WB - WALTER BAU AG took over 51% of the shares in DYWIDAG. Alfred Herrhausen ( Spokesman for the Board of Management of Deutsche Bank AG) provided support here. The company DYWIDAG, which merged with Siemens-Bauunion in 1972 , took over the then largest East German construction company, Union-Bau (formerly VEB BMK Coal and Energy ), from the Treuhandanstalt in the same year . In 1992 Heilit + Woerner AG's nominal capital was increased from DM 40.75 million to DM 75 million. The Walter family were shareholders. On August 6, 1992, the new main administration building of Walter Bau AG was inaugurated in Augsburg. In 1993, in cooperation with Züblin AG, a further 25% of the shares in Dywidag AG were taken over.
All acquisitions between 1978 and 1996 were financed solely from equity and earnings without taking out any loans. In 1996, despite all takeovers, the Walter Group had cash and cash equivalents of DM 2.6 billion. In 1996 Ignaz Walter moved from Chairman of the Board of Management of Walter Bau to Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Walter Bau AG. Walter also led the supervisory board at Heilit + Woerner AG, Züblin AG and Dywidag AG. In 2000 Heilit + Woerner AG was merged into Walter Bau AG.
In 2000, the Walter Group was the second largest construction company in Germany after HOCHTIEF, but it generated the largest domestic turnover. It possessed all the main and peripheral techniques that are necessary for the development, planning, construction and manufacture of all types of construction projects. In addition, it provided its services at home and abroad through the group company and its global branches as well as through many special technology subsidiaries. The Walter Group was represented with its own companies in many of the world's major cities. Approx. 1,600 large construction sites were constantly running in parallel in around 70 countries. The group worked partly alone and partly in working groups.
In May 2000, the existing guarantee line at Walter Bau AG and Heilit + Woerner Bau AG was reduced by more than 50%. Other banks and insurance companies soon followed suit. Walter Bau AG was now forced to deposit cash and assets to procure bank guarantees and to pay suppliers and subcontractors in advance. In 2002 the Bayerische Landesbank and the Bavarian State Ministry for Economic Affairs and Media, Energy and Technology founded a banking consortium with the participation of Otto Wiesheu and Roland Berger in order to guarantee Walter-Bau AG the necessary bank guarantees.
In 2001 Walter-Bau AG was formed from the merger of Walter-Bau AG and DYWIDAG, combined with DYWIDAG.
In 2004 the last independent company ( Züblin AG ) was to be merged with Walter-Bau AG, combined with DYWIDAG. However, this failed due to the resistance of the banks involved, who saw disadvantages for Züblin. This was one of the last attempts to save the ailing construction giant.
On February 1, 2005, the company filed for bankruptcy.
Reasons for bankruptcy
The main reasons for the decline of Walter-Bau AG combined with DYWIDAG are the crisis in the German construction industry, obligations for pensions and interest on loans and mistakes in management.
The core flaws included:
- Neglect of foreign business (only about 1/4 of total sales)
- Lossy turnkey construction
- Holding on to loss construction sites or projects
- incorrect accounting.
This led to the termination of the guarantee line by Deutsche Bank in May 2000, which caught the company off guard.
The termination of the guarantee lines by Deutsche Bank was followed by almost all of the major banks in Germany and abroad after a relatively short period of time. This had dire consequences for Walter Bau. Walter Bau could no longer offer on the market (it lacked the necessary offer guarantees). In just a few months, with sales of more than DM 16 billion, the DM 2.3 billion liquid funds were completely used up.
Outstanding construction work
Many thousands of structures have been built around the world. A small selection is given below:
- Germany
- Refurbishment of the Olympic Stadium in Berlin
- New construction of the ESPRIT arena (Düsseldorf)
- Participation in the reconstruction of the Frauenkirche (Dresden) (ARGE) M + F Media 2014,
- Renovation of the castle, the Zwinger (Dresden)
- Redevelopment of the Leipzig main station
- Airports with runways in Munich, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Hamburg, Hanover
- Tunnels and subways in Munich, Berlin, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Duisburg, Hamburg
- High-speed route Cologne – Rhine / Main
- large motorway sections and huge prestressed concrete bridges all over Germany
- International
- Hong Kong Airport
- Bayioke Tower in Bangkok
- Don Mueang Tollway , Bangkok
- High Rise Forum, Sydney
- one of the largest steel mills in the world in Misurata - Libya
- Metro Algiers
- many seawater desalination plants in Arabia and Africa
- University of Riyadh
- one of the world's largest prestressed concrete bridges across the Arctic Ocean from Canada to the Prince Edward Islands
- New Westminster Tunnel in British Columbia
- Tower Vancouver
- Bellagio Hotel, Las Vegas
- Garcon Point Bridge, Florida
- 15,000 apartments on permafrost in Russia
- Large prestressed concrete bridges around the world
literature
- Ignaz Walter: Volume I - from below - Out of need and misery to success . M + F Media 2014, ISBN 978-3-00-045217-8 .
- Ignaz Walter: Volume II - Top - Group structure . M + F Media 2014, ISBN 978-3-00-045218-5 .
- Ignaz Walter: Volume III - above - Group destruction . M + F Media 2014, ISBN 978-3-00-045219-2 .
Web links
- Image brochure 2004 (PDF; 4.6 MB)
- Group destruction - (Ignaz Walter)
- Walter Bau is finished - (Article in the world)
- Walter Bau in insolvency proceedings - 4000 jobs gone - (Article in the FAZ)
- Early documents and newspaper articles on Thosti in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
Individual evidence
- ↑ welt.de: Walter Bau is finished
- ↑ Image brochure 2004 ( 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. (PDF; 4.6 MB)
