Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas, S.A. (), or FCC, is a Spanish construction company based in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

. Until November 2014, over 50 percent of the shares were owned by a company controlled by the daughter of its founder, Esther Koplowitz and others, when

George Soros George Soros ( name written in eastern order), (born György Schwartz, August 12, 1930) is a Hungarian-American businessman and philanthropist. , he had a net worth of US$8.6 billion, Note that this site is updated daily. having donated mo ...

bought around 25 percent of her rights to acquire shares.

History

The business was founded in

in 1900 as ''Fomento de Obras y Construcciones S.A.'' and became known as ''FOCSA''. In 1992 FOCSA merged with ''Construcciones y Contratas'', a company founded in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

in 1944 to form ''Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas, S.A.'' Proactiva was a 50–50 joint venture formed in 1999 between Veolia Environnement and FCC, until Veolia bought the other 50 percent share from FCC in 2013. In September 2006 FCC acquired the British

Waste Recycling Group FCC Environment (UK) Limited is a waste management company headquartered in Northampton, United Kingdom and a wholly owned subsidiary of Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas. It was formed in May 2012 through the merger and rebranding of Focsa ...

, excluding its

landfill gas Landfill gas is a mix of different gases created by the action of microorganisms within a landfill as they decompose organic waste, including for example, food waste and paper waste. Landfill gas is approximately forty to sixty percent methane ...

operations, from

Terra Firma Capital Partners Terra Firma Capital Partners Ltd. (TFCP) is a UK-based private equity firm. Financier Guy Hands founded the firm in 2002 through the spin-off of Nomura Principal Finance Group. The firm, which traces its roots to the formation of its predecess ...

for £1.4 billion. In July 2013, Alpine Bau Holding GmbH, a subsidiary of FCC which had accumulated debt of €2.56 billion and placed €190 million of corporate bonds on the

Wiener Börse The Wiener Börse AG (also known as the Vienna Stock Exchange) is a bourse situated in Vienna, Austria. The exchange also owns and operates the Prague Stock Exchange, provides market infrastructure to other exchanges in Central, Eastern, and ...

OTC, went into administration. In August 2013, FCC sold its subsidiary Alpine Energie, a company of 3,000 employees in the German-speaking Alps that builds and maintains power plants, telecommunications, and traffic infrastructure, to Triton Partners, a

private equity In the field of finance, the term private equity (PE) refers to investment funds, usually limited partnerships (LP), which buy and restructure financially weak companies that produce goods and provide services. A private-equity fund is both a t ...

company, for just under €100 million ($133 million). In November 2014, FCC shared that American business magnate

would become a key shareholder. In March 2015, it was announced that Mexican business magnate

Carlos Slim Carlos Slim Helú (; born 28 January 1940) is a Mexican business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. From 2010 to 2013, Slim was ranked as the richest person in the world by the '' Forbes'' business magazine. He derived his fortune from h ...

would also be a minority shareholder in the company.

Structure

the business was divided into the following three major divisions: * FCC Environmental services like Urban related services (Versia) * FCC Water * FCC Infrastructure, including subdivisions construction, cement, concessions, industrial (includes energy distribution networks, mining and biofuel, oil and gas pipelines for Repsol, CLH, Gas Natural Fenosa and Enagás.) and real estate (Realia)

Major projects

Major FCC construction projects have included: *

Torre Picasso Torre Picasso (Picasso Tower) is a skyscraper in Madrid, Spain designed by Minoru Yamasaki. From 1988 until 2007 it was the tallest building in Madrid, measuring and with 43 floors. Torre Picasso is located next to the Pablo Picasso Square, wi ...

(1988) * Gate of Europe (1996) * Prince Philip Museum of Science in

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...

(2000) * Torre Caja Madrid (2008) * Pasajul Basarab in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north o ...

(2011) *

New Europe Bridge The New Europe Bridge ( bg, Мостът Нова Европа, Mostŭt Nova Evropa; ro, Podul Noua Europă) is a road and rail bridge between the cities of Vidin, Bulgaria, and Calafat, Romania. It is the second bridge on the shared section o ...

between

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

and

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

(2013)

References

External links

* {{Authority control Construction and civil engineering companies of Spain Companies based in the Community of Madrid Companies based in Barcelona Construction and civil engineering companies established in 1900 Spanish companies established in 1900 Companies listed on the Madrid Stock Exchange Multinational companies headquartered in Spain Spanish brands