COMPANY NEWS Porr strengthens ground support division
07 Aug 2013
Peter Kenyon, TunnelTalk
- The break up of bankrupt contractor Alpine Bau continues as Austrian contractor Porr announces 100% acquisition of excavation specialist Grund - Pfahl - und Sonderbau (GPS) and its German subsidiary Stump Spezialtiefbau.
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- GPS, which is active mainly in the Austrian market, was founded in 1966 to provide excavation and support solutions in predominantly extreme Alpine conditions, specialising in diaphragm walls, bored piles and DSV underpinnings.
- The company in its current format came about as a result of acquisition of Alpine-Meyreder Bau in 2000 (which itself had been taken over by Alpine Holdings four years earlier). Both companies had their own subsidiaries specialising in foundations which were integrated to form Grund - Pfahl - und Sonderbau.
- The newly-formed GPS is now able to offer all aspects of foundation construction including bored piles, driven piles, diaphragm walls, thin diaphragm walls, pre-stressed and non-tensioned (passive) anchors, high pressure and low pressure grouting, internal, unbounded, and external pre-stressing, and special techniques, such as lifting and shifting heavy loads.
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Consolidation grouting work
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Special foundation services during cut and cover tunnel construction
- In 2005 GPS took over Stump, active mainly in the German market but expanded into the Czech and Polish markets in the mid-2000s, which is also included in the Porr acquisition. The Austrian company says it will maintain the Stump civil engineering brand by marketing it as "powered by Porr."
- "GPS and Stump fit very well into Porr," said Karl-Heinz Strauss, CEO. He added: "This acquisition is in line with our strategy of smart growth and complements our existing foundation engineering division with technically adept personnel and specific know-how, and enables us to enter new customer markets."
- A total of 500 staff from the two companies will be kept on.
- The acquisition from the administrators is subject to approval by the relevant competition authorities and bankruptcy court approval. Last week another Alpine Bau asset - tunnelling specialist Alpine MeMo - was acquired by Metrostav of the Czech Republic.
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Alpine BeMo Tunnelling sold to Metrostav - TunnelTalk, July 2013
Austrian tunnel contractor files for bankruptcy - TunnelTalk, June 2013
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