Bilfinger Wants Speedy Sale Of Construction Unit
German engineering and services group Bilfinger aims to sell its civil engineering division quickly and, at the same time, is open to acquisitions abroad, the chief executive of the company was quoted as saying on Saturday. The company is accepting expressions of interest and preparing the unit for sale, CEO Roland Koch told newspaper Die Welt, confirming a story published by Reuters on Friday. "We just launched the process," he said. Bilfinger wants to wean itself off a business model vulnerable to price wars in the building sector and focus on providing higher-margin engineering and services for industrial facilities, power plants and real estate. The company said earlier in May that it aimed to exit certain parts of its construction activities.
German Ship Bank HSH Needs More Aid
Troubled German public-sector bank HSH Nordbank will likely need more state aid than previously thought due to deep losses in shipping lending and back taxes, the bank's supervisory board chairman said. The bank, one of the world's biggest shipping financiers, has said up to now that it may need up to 1.3 billion euros ($1.79 billion) in state backing from 2019 to 2025. "I wouldn't be surprised if we came to the conclusion, while looking at our 2013 results, that it will come out just a tick above that," Thomas Mirow told journalists late on Tuesday in comments embargoed for Wednesday. He declined to be specific because the bank's 2013 results had not been finalised yet, but said the increase would likely be in the hundreds of millions of euros.
