It is a paradigm shift: in Germany the Bundestag and the Federal Council approved the 500 billion euros in debt package for the expansion of the infrastructure last week. This is good news for the local building giant Porr, located in Vienna. CEO Karl-Heinz Strauss hopes for new orders.
“Krone”: What opportunities do the German 500 billion euros -infrastructure package give you? What do you expect?
Karl-Heinz Strauss: We regard this progress as an important boost for the construction sector and as a result also for overall economic development. This means that the long -awaited expansion of the infrastructure in Germany is started. This is about projects in traffic, industrial construction, residential construction and also the expansion of the infrastructure around the energy transition and the low -carbon – all areas in which the PORR is very successful with its expertise on the market.
Half of the trillion wants to invest Germany in ten years – how quickly will you notice positive effects for your company?
The financing program actually has no effect from one day to the next. We still have very long approval processes and bureaucratic obstacles in West Germany.
How much turnover Germany did the PORR do?
With 1.6 billion euros, the group generates – from the financial year 2023 – almost a quarter of the production performance of the group in Germany. This ratio is also reflected in the sale.
It sounds like Germany is a home market for them …
Germany is a particularly important home market for the Porr! Here we offer our full -service portfolio. Because of the geographical proximity, we have a historically grown strong bond with this market and with many customers we retain a very long partnership -based cooperation.
What are the biggest recent showcase projects in Germany, what are the most exciting current projects?
For example, we are currently building the Elisabeth-Selbert-Hause for the German Federal Destag in Berlin and Tunnels for the Wind Energy Line SEDLINK, which will be equipped with renewable electricity from the wind-rich north. Our largest industrial construction projects include the construction of a large data center with slightly less than 200 million, a production facility for a pharmaceutical company for slightly less than EUR 100 million and a production room for BMW in Munich.
However, your share price has been increasing for a long time – from 20 October 2023 to now from 11.10 to more than 27 euros. Why?
We have delivered what we have promised in recent years. Trust in the porridge and the share has therefore increased for a long time. Moreover, the stock was very undervalued. With regard to the comparison companies, we had a much lower course that is still not fully opened. And: shares with a smaller market capitalization are again increasingly desirable. European investors are again risky.
Are construction companies in general in the stock market?
An upward trend is noticeable in the entire construction sector. This is due, among other things, to topics in which the PORR is very active, such as the tree around data center, but also on topics that do not affect us directly, but offer industry as a whole, for example the reconstruction in Ukraine.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
