Porr partners with broke Slovenian firm
An Austrian construction company has started a joint venture with a bankrupt rival, it has emerged.Business papers report today (Weds) that Vienna-based Porr AG will start working together with Slovenian building firm SCT. The new partners will try to win public tenders in the country which neighbours Austria in the south.SCT was banned from applying for assignments by the Slovenian government after it filed for bankruptcy last year.Porr, which is headed by Karl-Heinz Strauss, holds a 49 per cent interest in the new joint venture, according to today’s reports.Porr is quoted on the Vienna Stock Exchanges (WBAG) Standard Market Auction. The company acquired Austrian competitor Teerag-Asdag AG in full in December after having held a 52 per cent stake for some years.Porr has around 11,500 employees. Its earnings before interest and taxes (Ebit) decreased from 7.2 million Euros in the first half of 2009 to 6.9 million Euros in the same period of 2010. Porrs turnover edged down from 1.107 billion to 955 million Euros at the same time.Former decision-makers at the firm may face legal action after phone conversations leaked some weeks ago reveal that a lobbyist was unable to remember why he was paid hundreds of thousands of Euros by Porr bosses.Ex-Freedom Party (FPÖ) MP Walter Meischberger was wiretapped asking a business partner in January 2010: “What was my achievement (to get that money)?”