YIT Oyj is the largest Finnish and a significant North European construction company. YIT is headquartered in

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

and its stock is listed on Nasdaq Helsinki Oy. YIT develops and builds apartments, business premises and entire areas. YIT is also specialised in demanding infrastructure construction and paving. YIT operates in 8 countries: Finland, Sweden, the Baltic States, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland.

History

The origins of YIT can be traced back to 1912, when Sweden's General Engineering Company () established a subsidiary in Finland, initially to operate in the water supply sector. The Finnish translation of the group's title, ''Yleinen Insinööritoimisto'', is the source of the name YIT. The first project undertaken by the new company was the construction of a

water tower A water tower is an elevated structure supporting a water tank constructed at a height sufficient to pressurize a water distribution system, distribution system for potable water, and to provide emergency storage for fire protection. Water towe ...

Porvoo Porvoo (; ; ) is a city in Finland. It is located on the south coast of the country, on the Gulf of Finland. Porvoo lies in the eastern part of the Uusimaa region. The population of Porvoo is approximately , while the Porvoo sub-region, sub-re ...

. The firm's field of operation was gradually broadened over the following decades, but it was not until the 1970s that the company moved beyond the

civil engineering Civil engineering is a regulation and licensure in engineering, professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads ...

sector into construction of

building A building or edifice is an enclosed Structure#Load-bearing, structure with a roof, walls and window, windows, usually standing permanently in one place, such as a house or factory. Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and functions, a ...

s (including residential property) and industrial works. In September 1987, Yleinen Insinööritoimisto

merged Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of a company, business organization, or one of their operating units is transferred to or consolidated with another entity. They may happen through direct absorpt ...

with rival Finnish contractor Perusyhtymä Oy, creating YIT-Yhtymä (YIT Corporation). Since the merger, YIT's growth into new sectors has been aided by several acquisitions: in 1995, the

piping Within industry, piping is a system of pipes used to convey fluids (liquids and gases) from one location to another. The engineering discipline of piping design studies the efficient transport of fluid. Industrial process piping (and accomp ...

design and maintenance specialist Oy Huber Ab was acquired, the same year that the company's

shares In financial markets, a share (sometimes referred to as stock or equity) is a unit of equity ownership in the capital stock of a corporation. It can refer to units of mutual funds, limited partnerships, and real estate investment trusts. Sha ...

were listed on the

Helsinki Stock Exchange Nasdaq Helsinki, formerly known as the Helsinki Stock Exchange (, ), is a stock exchange located in Helsinki, Finland. Since 3 September 2003, it has been part of Nasdaq Nordic (previously called ''OMX''). After the OMX merger, it was referred t ...

, and the Swedish

pipeline A pipeline is a system of Pipe (fluid conveyance), pipes for long-distance transportation of a liquid or gas, typically to a market area for consumption. The latest data from 2014 gives a total of slightly less than of pipeline in 120 countries ...

installation and maintenance firm Calor AB and its Finnish

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company (law), company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidia ...

were purchased in 2001. These additions assisted a wider move into the industrial upkeep and maintenance market. Primatel, the network construction and maintenance arm of the telecommunications firm

Sonera Telia Company AB is a Swedish Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications company and mobile network operator present in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Telia also owns TV4 Media which includes TV4 in S ...

, was added in 2002, and a year later the building systems concerns of

ABB ABB Group is a Swedish-Swiss multinational electrical engineering corporation. Incorporated in Switzerland as ABB Ltd., and headquartered in Zurich, it is dual-listed on the Nasdaq Nordic exchange in Stockholm, Sweden, and the SIX Swiss Excha ...

in Russia and the Nordic and Baltic regions were acquired, further increasing YIT's presence in the service sector. In 2008 and 2010 YIT has continued expanding its operations into Central Europe. In March 2022, YIT quit all activities, such as investments and construction, in Russia because of

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

Current activities

YIT's recent acquisitions have seen the company increase markedly in size - both the company's

revenue In accounting, revenue is the total amount of income generated by the sale of product (business), goods and services related to the primary operations of a business. Commercial revenue may also be referred to as sales or as turnover. Some compan ...

and

workforce In macroeconomics, the workforce or labour force is the sum of people either working (i.e., the employed) or looking for work (i.e., the unemployed): \text = \text + \text Those neither working in the marketplace nor looking for work are out ...

more than trebled in the ten years to 2007, making YIT the largest

construction Construction are processes involved in delivering buildings, infrastructure, industrial facilities, and associated activities through to the end of their life. It typically starts with planning, financing, and design that continues until the a ...

company in Finland and the largest supplier of building systems services in the Nordic region by sales. This growth is also reflected in the scope of YIT's business: long-term servicing and maintenance contracts for items such as

steam boilers Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

, piping, heating, plumbing and electricity networks and

water treatment Water treatment is any process that improves the quality of water to make it appropriate for a specific end-use. The end use may be drinking, industrial water supply, irrigation, river flow maintenance, water recreation or many other uses, ...

plants now account for over a quarter of annual revenues. The Construction Services division, building homes, water and

waste Waste are unwanted or unusable materials. Waste is any substance discarded after primary use, or is worthless, defective and of no use. A by-product, by contrast is a joint product of relatively minor Value (economics), economic value. A wast ...

treatment plants and infrastructure ranging from

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

s to

golf course A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a teeing ground, tee box, a #Fairway and rough, fairway, the #Fairway and rough, rough and other hazard (golf), hazards, and ...

s remains the group's largest source of revenue as of the end of 2006. In June 2017, the company announced its intention to acquire rival

Lemminkäinen Lemminkäinen () or Lemminki () is a prominent figure in Finnish mythology. He is one of the heroes of the ''Kalevala'', where his character is a composite of several separate heroes of oral poetry. He is usually depicted as young and good-loo ...

for €632 million (£553.6 million) in an all-share deal representing a 40% premium over Lemminkainen's current share price. The new YIT was born when over 100-year-old YIT Corporation and Lemminkäinen Corporation merged on February 1, 2018.

Notable projects

YIT was the main contractor for the Finnish Parliament building, the Pikkuparlamentti (), which was inaugurated in 2004. It was also responsible for the construction of the Cirrus apartment building in

Vuosaari Vuosaari () is a Subdivisions of Helsinki#Neighbourhoods, neighbourhood in the city of Helsinki, Finland. It is located by the sea in East Helsinki and with its area of is geographically the largest district in the city. It also has two Helsi ...

East Helsinki East Helsinki (, ) is an area in Helsinki, Finland, usually thought to comprise the city's eastern and south-eastern major districts (, ), including the districts of Vartiokylä, Myllypuro, Mellunkylä, Vuosaari, Herttoniemi, Laajasalo a ...

, which was completed in 2007. Cirrus is currently the second tallest high-rise building in Finland. Other major projects built by the company include the Helsinki Fair Centre and the

Töölö Töölö (; , formerly spelled ''Thölö'') is the collective name for the neighbourhoods Etu-Töölö () and Taka-Töölö () in Helsinki, Finland. The neighbourhoods are located next to the city centre, occupying the western side of the Helsin ...

opera house, home of the

Finnish National Opera The Finnish National Opera and Ballet (; ) is a Finnish opera company and ballet company based in Helsinki. It is headquartered in the Opera House on the coast of the Töölönlahti bay in Töölö, which opened in 1993, and is state-owned throu ...

Ownership

Ehrnrooth family is the biggest owner of the construction company YIT, 12.1% in the end of January 2012.

Critics

Bani Walid Bani Walid (Anglicized: ; , Libyan pronunciation: ) is a city in Libya located in the Misrata District. Prior to 2007, it was the capital of Sof-Aljeen District. Bani Walid has an airport. Under the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, it was divided i ...

in Libya, YIT constructed in silence a military factory in 1983. Company changed its name from Perusyhtymä to YIT in 1987. 40 residents made complaints of ammonia observed in YIT residential constructions in St. Petersburg in September 2011. Russians add ammonia to concrete in the winter construction.

Corruption in construction

YIT was suspected of bribes for the public construction office of Helsinki in May 2012. Six people were arrested in May 2012 by order of Helsinki District Court in the investigation of corruption in Helsinki city building contracts. The advantage may have been half a million euros from several years. The investigation is on-going. In July 2014 according to leading Finnish newspaper

Helsingin Sanomat , abbreviated ''HS'' and colloquially known as , is the largest subscription newspaper in Finland and the Nordic countries, owned by Sanoma. Except after certain holidays, it is published daily. Its name derives from that of the Finnish capital ...

YIT is more connected than previously expected in the bribery investigation of Helsinki construction during 2003–2011. YIT is suspected of involvement in the salaries without taxes and grey accountings.

Other

YIT demanded €20,000 sanctions for silence from an elderly couple in Espoo in the conflict of construction in 2011.YIT pelotteli sakoilla eläkeläisparia hiljaiseksi Länsiväylä 7.12.2011

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Yit Companies based in Helsinki Construction and civil engineering companies established in 1912 Companies listed on Nasdaq Helsinki Construction and civil engineering companies of Finland Service companies of Finland Finnish companies established in 1912 Multinational companies headquartered in Finland