HISTORY AND PROFILE OF JOINT-STOCK COMPANY HOCHTIEF CZ

In 1939, Jan Baťa opened a new factory in Sezimovo Ústí. Since he was a businessman body and soul, he decided not to award the order for its construction to “other” construction company. He founded his own. So the factory and the adjacent satellite town – how it could be possibly called today – were built by Baťa’s construction division. After World War II, it became a national company named Vodní stavby, which eventually gained the position of one of the most important and largest building contractors in Czechoslovakia. In 1985, one division of Vodní stavby was allocated to engage in implementation of one of the longest and most complicated construction projects in the country´s history – construction of the first and the second block of the Temelín Nuclear Power Plant. The period after 1989 was marked by privatization and several changes of the company´s names, but they always referred to the historic brand Vodní stavby.

In the post-revolutionary period the most significant milestone was 1999 when the owner changed – a multinational construction group HOCHTIEF became the majority shareholder of VSB a.s. Thus the integration process began, completed in 2002. At the end, there was a strong and efficient company HOCHTIEF VSB, ready for business in the environment of the European Union. A new vision and guiding principles of the company were declared, the logo and the company name were changed. The legal subjectivity of subsidiaries was cancelled – they were changed to branch plants. VSB a.s. stopped being a publicly traded company.  

That did not mean the end of the changes, however. There was 2006 and the company got a new name – HOCHTIEF CZ. Its headquarters moved to Prague – Smíchov, to the new business centre of the capital. It renamed its divisions from number names to word names to become more readable for its partners. Two new divisions were established and thus filled the blank spots in the service portfolio provided to its clients. At the end of this stage, in 2006, a multinational construction holding HOCHTIEF AG became the sole owner of the company.

For nineteen years now, the joint-stock company HOCHTIEF CZ has been a part of a strong multinational construction group that operates worldwide. The company has a strong position on the Czech market, especially in the areas of building construction and traffic infrastructure. Through its five divisions it has implemented a number of significant projects, among others, National Integrated Air Traffic Control Centre in Jeneč near Prague, multifunctional stadium SK Slavia in Prague, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science VŠB – Technical University of Ostrava or reconstruction of the National Monument on the Vítkov Hill in Prague. The company also participated in construction of the Lochkov tunnel and a bridge on the outer ring road in Prague, in implementation of the Blanka tunnel or reconstruction of the taxiway TWY D at the Václav Havel Airport Prague. The company collaborated on the extension of metro line V.A, where it built part of the tunnels and two stations. The company currently works on the reconstruction of Central Waste Treatment Plant in Prague, reconstruction of the backbone highway D1, reconstruction of historic Negrelli viaduct or reconstrution of the State Opera, both in Prague.  

The joint-stock company HOCHTIEF CZ offers to its clients a wide range of services, from the initial discussions about a project to implementation of the most demanding orders. It builds on fifty-year history of HOCHTIEF VSB and follows the best traditions of the Czech construction industry to further develop it with its activities and push it to the modern concept of creation of the space for life. It can benefit not only from its own history and experience, but it has open door to 140 years of experience of the parent group, which is one of the most important global multinational construction groups. The HOCHTIEF group employs nearly 64,000 employees and in 2018 generated a turnover nearly EUR 24 billion. In the long term, it is one of the leading companies engaged in construction and related activities. In terms of the turnover generated outside the home country it has been for a long time in the first place.     

1938		Stavební divize společnosti Baťa
1951		Vodní stavby n.p.
1985		Výstavba Jaderné elektrárny Temelín n.p.
1992		Vodní stavby Temelín a.s.
1994		Vodní stavby Bohemia a.s.
1998		VSB a.s.
1999		Vstup majoritního akcionáře HOCHTIEF
2002		HOCHTIEF VSB a.s.
2006		HOCHTIEF CZ a. s.