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Hollandsche Beton Groep

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HBG logo used from the 1970s to its acquisition by Royal BAM Group.

Hollandsche Beton Groep nv (HBG) was a Netherlands-based construction group founded in 1902. It expanded internationally in the late 20th century, acquiring businesses in the United Kingdom, before being itself acquired by Netherlands competitor Royal BAM NBM to form the Royal BAM Group.

History

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Hollandsche Beton Groep NV was founded in 1902 as Hollandsche Beton Maatschappij NV (HBM).[1][2] During 1960, its Indonesian business was nationalized and eventually became PT Hutama Karya (Persero). In 1968, HBM merged with the Leiden-based Hollandse Constructie Groep (HCG), creating the largest construction company in the Netherlands with 8,000 employees, of which 5,400 came from HBM and 2,600 from HCG.[3]

During the 1970s, HBG pursued a strategy of expanding overseas; one of the more major acquisitions made around this time was the British civil engineering contracting firm Edmund Nuttall Ltd in 1978.[4] In the latter half of the 1980s, the company starting focusing upon growing into one of the leading participants in the European construction market.[5][6] In 1989, the company acquired the British firm Kyle Stewart;[7][8] later that same year, the Belgian-based firm Société de Traveaux Galère sa and RET, Regel- en Electrotechniek bvba was acquired.[9] Starting in 1988, HBM was one of the ten largest construction companies active in Northwest Europe; by 1992, it employed 16,348 people.[10][11]

During 1991, HBG announced that it intended to expand its building interests in the UK market from generating an annual turnover of £355 million to £500 million via a series of acquisitions.[12] Accordingly, it purchased the Glasgow-based contractor GA Holdings (formerly Gilbert Ash) in 1992,[13] and the London-centric construction firm Higgs and Hill in 1996.[14][15] Its subsidiary Edmund Nuttall also made several acquisitions during this time, such as Hynes Construction (1992), John Martin Construction (1999) and Finchpalm Ltd (2000).[4] Typically, these individual companies' names were initially retained with the HBG prefix;[7][16] however, several were combined together and rebranded as HBG Construction with effect from 1 January 1999.[17]

During 2000, HBG and the Dutch maritime construction firm Boskalis Westminster NV explored multiple avenues aimed at merging the two businesses, ranging from a hostile takeover to even agreeing terms from a friendly transaction.[18][19] However, even though the European Commission cleared such a deal to proceed, it did not come to fruition, allegedly due to disagreements over the proposed combined enterprise's direction.[20][21] It was speculated that such an arrangement would have created the market leader in the Benelux region (in terms of turnover) as well as one of the five largest European construction companies.[22]

In February 2002, the whole group was the subject of a takeover bid by Spain's Dragados Group[23][24] under a deal that was cleared by the European Commission during April 2002.[25] However, this deal was short-lived; in June 2002, Dragados sold off HBG to the Dutch group Royal BAM NBM to form the Koninklijke BAM Groep,[26][27] and pave the way for Dragados's merger with the Spanish-based competitor, ACS.[23] During 2008, HBG was rebranded as BAM; the British civil engineering business became BAM Nuttall, while HBG Construction became BAM Construct UK.[28][29]

References

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  1. ^ "Hollandsche Beton Groep NV". Bloomberg. Retrieved 6 July 2020.
  2. ^ "Oprichting NV Hollandsche Maatschappij tot het maken van Werken in Gewapend Beton". Nederlandsche Staatscourant (in Dutch). 31 January 1902.
  3. ^ "Hollandsche Beton koopt Hollandse Constructie". De Telegraaf (in Dutch). 20 August 1968.
  4. ^ a b "BAM Nuttall: History". Archived from the original on 8 June 2012.
  5. ^ "Winst HBG stijgt met 11% tot 50,5 miljoen". NRC Handelsblad (in Dutch). 25 March 1988.
  6. ^ "HBG voert deel Euro-strategie uit". NRC Handelsblad (in Dutch). 3 August 1989.
  7. ^ a b Carrillo, Patricia (2001). Mergers and acquisitions in the construction industry: an exploratory study (PDF). University of Loughborough. S2CID 166864570. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 July 2020. Retrieved 6 July 2020.
  8. ^ "HBG.Hollandsche Beton Groep, which owns Edmund Nuttall and Kyle Stewart in the UK as well as having UK dredging interests, turned in increased pre-tax profits in the first half". constructionnews.co.uk. 17 September 1992.
  9. ^ "HBG ligt goed op koers uitgezette strategie". De Telegraaf. 8 September 1989.
  10. ^ "Grote fusie aannemers". Trouw (in Dutch). 20 May 1988.
  11. ^ "Hollandse tunnel in Londen". Limburgs Dagblad (in Dutch). 20 March 1992.
  12. ^ "22Mar91 NETHERLANDS: HOLLANDSCHE BETON GROEP'S 1990 PRETAX PROFITS UP 18% TO DFL 91.6M (£28.1M)". constructionnews.co.uk. 21 March 1991.
  13. ^ "HBG ACQUIRES GA HOLDINGS". Construction News. 16 July 1992. Retrieved 6 July 2020.
  14. ^ "Sir Brian Hill searches for a trustworthy heir". Financial Times. 19 April 2007. Archived from the original on 1 September 2011.
  15. ^ "Warning shots fired at medium-sized contractors after Dutch giant swoops in 28.5 million deal H&H quits contracting". constructionnews.co.uk. 19 December 1996.
  16. ^ "HBG buys into the Euro super league". constructionnews.co.uk. 27 March 1997.
  17. ^ "HBG Triple Move". Construction News. 17 December 1998. Retrieved 6 July 2020.
  18. ^ Dorsey, James M. (16 May 2000). "Boskalis, Hollandsche Beton Groep Reach Deal for Friendly Merger". Wall Street Journal.
  19. ^ "HBG verzet zich fel tegen bod Boskalis". digibron.nl (in Dutch). 29 February 2000.
  20. ^ Verheugen, Günter (4 July 2000). "Case No COMP/M.1877 - BOSKALIS / HBG" (PDF). European Commission.
  21. ^ Dorsey, James M. (11 July 2000). "Boskalis, HBG Call Off Merger Plan On a Disagreement Over Strategy". Wall Street Journal.
  22. ^ "Heijmans and Boskalis are in agreement on the basics of future purchase dredging activities HBG". globenewswire.com. 31 August 2001.
  23. ^ a b "Grupo Dragados SA History". Funding Universe. Retrieved 6 July 2020.
  24. ^ Johnson, Keith (18 February 2002). "Dragados's HBG Bid Looks Risky But May Offer Many Advantages". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 6 July 2020.
  25. ^ "Commission clears acquisition of HBG by Dragados in the provision of construction and dredging services (10 April 2002)". European Commission. Retrieved 6 July 2020.
  26. ^ "Royal BAM NBM completes takeover of HBG". Europe Real Estate. 15 November 2002. Archived from the original on 10 July 2011.
  27. ^ "NMa clears acquisition of HBG by Royal Bam NBM". europe-re.com. 25 October 2002.
  28. ^ Rogers, David (29 July 2008). "HBG rebrands as Bam". Construction News. Retrieved 6 July 2020.
  29. ^ Bill, Tom (30 July 2008). "HBG to rebrand as Bam Construct UK". building.co.uk.
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