ACS, Actividades de Construcción y Servicios, S.A. () is a Spanish company dedicated to civil engineering, construction, all types of services and

telecommunication Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...

s. It is one of the leading

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 ...

companies in the world, with projects in many countries around the world. The company was founded in 1997 through the merger of ''OCP Construcciones, S.A.'' and ''Ginés Navarro Construcciones, S.A.'' The group has a presence in the United States, Germany, India, Brazil, Chile, Morocco and Australia. The headquarters are in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

and the chairperson is Florentino Pérez. Listed on the

Bolsa de Madrid (; Madrid Stock Exchange) is the largest and most international of Spain's four regional stock exchanges (the others are located in Barcelona, Valencia, and Bilbao) that trade shares and convertible bonds and fixed income securities, and both g ...

, the company's shares form part of the

IBEX 35 The IBEX 35 (IBerian IndEX) is the benchmark stock market index of the Bolsa de Madrid, Spain's principal stock exchange. Initiated in 1992, the index is administered and calculated by Sociedad de Bolsas, a subsidiary of Bolsas y Mercados Espa� ...

stock market index.

History

The company was formed when a team of engineers acquired ''Construcciones Padrós S.A.'', a construction business which had been in financial difficulty, in 1983. The company acquired a majority holding in ''Cobra'', a support services business, and merged with ''OCISA S.A.'' to create ''OCP Construcciones, S.A.'' In 1993, it went on to merge with ''Ginés Navarro Construcciones, S.A.'' to create ''Grupo ACS'' in 1997. It subsequently bought ''Onyx SCL'', an environmental contractor in 1999 and stakes in ''Xfera'' and ''Broadnet'', telecommunications businesses in 2000 before going on to acquire ''Dragados S.A.'', a large contractor established during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

to dredge the Port of Tarifa and which had subsequently gained extensive experience in hydro-electric and civil engineering work, in 2003. During 2005, ACS entered the US market via the establishment of ''Dragados USA'', a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dragados S.A. One of the first undertakings of the newly formed branch was a successful bid for the

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

Metropolitan Transportation Authority The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a New York state public benefit corporations, public benefit corporation in New York (state), New York State responsible for public transportation in the New York metropolitan area, New York Ci ...

(MTA) East Side Access Manhattan Tunnels project, being awarded an initial contract valued at $428 million. In April 2008, the MTA awarded another contract, valued at $506 million, to the company. Separate undertakings by the company included the Harbor Bridge Project, and the Maryland's Purple Line. During 2006, the company acquired 22.0% of the Spanish utility company '' Unión Fenosa''; its stake in the business was subsequently increased to 45%); two years later, ACS Group opted to divest its stake to Gas Natural. In September 2011, ACS Group issued an offer to purchase a controlling stake in German rival

Hochtief Hochtief AG is a global provider of infrastructure technology and construction services, with locations in North America, Australia, and Europe. The Essen based company is primarily active in the fields of high tech, energy transition, and sustai ...

; the latter mounted an unsuccessful challenge to this approach. During April 2011, the firm raised its stake in Hochtief to 50.16%, effectively acquiring the company. During 2017, the company participated in a bidding war to acquire the toll road management business

Abertis Abertis Infraestructuras, S.A. () is a Spanish worldwide corporation engaged in toll road management. The company is headquartered in Madrid. The company runs over 8,600 kilometres of toll roads in the world. In October 2018, it was acquired by I ...

. In October 2018, ACS Group joined with the Italian holding firm Atlantia to undertake a 16.5 billion euro ($19 billion) acquisition of Abertis as part of its ambition to build the world's largest toll road group; the transaction was approved by the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

. Two years later, under the company's strategy of continuous rotation of mature assets to generate resources for new projects, ACS Group sold a 74% stake in a batch of six tranches of ‘shadow toll’ highways in Spain to

Hermes Hermes (; ) is an Olympian deity in ancient Greek religion and mythology considered the herald of the gods. He is also widely considered the protector of human heralds, travelers, thieves, merchants, and orators. He is able to move quic ...

for €950 million. In October 2020, ACS Group announced that it had received a €5.2 billion ($6.08 billion) bid from the French infrastructure group

Vinci SA Vinci (; corporately styled VINCI) is a French concessions and construction company founded in 1899 as Société Générale d'Entreprises. Its head office is in Nanterre, in the western suburbs of Paris. Vinci is listed on Euronext's Paris st ...

for its ACS Industrial division; this transaction was completed during the following year. Additional arrangements between the two companies led to the creation of a joint venture focused on the renewable energy sector. During 2021, ACS Group conducted an internal review to simplify its structure and allegedly considered spinning out its construction business; around this time, the company was focused on increasing its toll road division within the European market. In April of that year, it made an approach to purchase Atlantia's 88% stake in motorway division ''Autostrade per l'Italia'', which valued the business at 9 billion-10 billion euros ($10.7 billion-$11.9 billion). In September 2022, Atlantia sold its 14.46% stake in Hochtief to ACS Group in exchange for 577.8 million euros ($576.9 million). In July 2022, the company was fined €57.1 million, along with five other contractors, by the Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia (CNMC) for bidding collusion in public tenders for building and civil infrastructure works. On 30 July 2024, ACS Group and Hochtief announced that Dragados North America would be integrated with Flatiron. The combined company, Flatiron Dragados, would be held 61.8% by ACS and 38.2% by Hochtief. That same year, ACS Group reported that it had achieved better than expected results, which was largely attributed to its construction portfolio in the United States and Australia, particularly its

toll road A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road for which a fee (or ''Toll (fee), toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically implemented to help recoup the costs of road construction and ...

interests.

Divisions

Construction

* Dragados North America **Dragados USA ***Pulice ***John P. Picone Inc ***Schiavone Construction Co. LLC ***Prince Contracting *** J.F. White Contracting Co. **Dragados Canada * VYCSA * Roura & Cevasa * Electren * Constru-Rail * Edileuropa Di Stivaletti Michele * TECSA * Drace * Dravosa * GEOCISA * COGESA * Dycvensa * Dycasa * Pol-Aqua *

(66.5%) **

Turner Turner may refer to: People and fictional characters * Turner (surname), a common surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Turner (given name), a list of people with the given name *One who uses a lathe for tur ...

***Clark Builders ***Tompkins Builders ** Flatiron ***E.E. Cruz and Company **

CIMIC Group CIMIC Group Limited (formerly Leighton Holdings) is an engineering-led construction, mining, services and public private partnerships leader working across the lifecycle of assets, infrastructure and resources projects. History Founded in 194 ...

***Sedgman ***CPB Contractors *** Leighton Asia *** Thiess *** UGL *** Ventia

Infrastructure

* Iridium Concesiones de Infraestructuras

Industrial companies

* Grupo Cobra * Grupo Etra * Etra air * SEMI S.A. * IMESAPI * EYRA * CYMI * Dragados OFFSHORE * GRUPO MAESSA * Maetel * Grupo MAESSA Arabia Saudi Ltd * Intecsa Industrial * Initec Energía * SICE

Services

* Clece * Dragados SPL * Continental-Rail

Minority Investments

(25%) *

Urbis Urbis is a building in Manchester, England, designed by Ian Simpson (architect), Ian Simpson, which opened in 2002 as part of the redevelopment of Exchange Square (Manchester), Exchange Square. Originally a Museum of the City, a switch was made i ...

Significant projects

Major projects involving the company have included the Alqueva Dam completed in 2002, the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia completed in 2005, the

Torre Agbar ''Torre'' (plurals ''torri'' and ''torres'') means ''tower'' in seven Romance languages ( Portuguese, Spanish, Galician, Catalan, Italian, Occitan and Corsican) and may refer to: Biology * Muir-Torre syndrome, the inherited cancer syndrom ...

completed in 2005, the Torre de Cristal completed in 2008, the Torre Caja Madrid completed in 2008, the LGV Perpignan–Figueres High Speed railway completed in 2009, the Portugués Dam in

Ponce, Puerto Rico Ponce ( , , ) is a city and a Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality on the southern coast of Puerto Rico. The most populated city outside the San Juan, Puerto Rico, San Juan metropolitan area, Ponce was founded on August 12, 1692Some publ ...

completed in 2014 and the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project completed in 2016.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Acs Group Public utilities of Spain Energy companies of Spain Telecommunications companies of Spain Construction and civil engineering companies of Spain Conglomerate companies of Spain Multinational companies headquartered in Spain Companies based in Madrid Companies based in the Community of Madrid Construction and civil engineering companies established in 1997 Energy companies established in 1997 Non-renewable resource companies established in 1997 Telecommunications companies established in 1997 IBEX 35 Companies listed on the Madrid Stock Exchange Spanish companies established in 1997