ACS Group

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.[3] 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 World War II to dredge the Port of Tarifa and which had subsequently gained extensive experience in hydro-electric and civil engineering work, in 2003.[4]

In 2006 the company acquired 22.0% of Unión Fenosa (raised later to 45%), a leading utilities business, before divesting it to Gas Natural in 2008,[5] and in 2011, Grupo ACS raised its stake in Hochtief to 50.16%, effectively acquiring the company.[6]

Major projects involving the company have included the Alqueva Dam completed in 2002,[7] the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia completed in 2005,[8] the Torre Agbar completed in 2005,[9] the Torre de Cristal completed in 2008,[10] the Torre Caja Madrid completed in 2008,[11] the LGV Perpignan–Figueres High Speed railway completed in 2009,[12] the Portugués Dam in Ponce, Puerto Rico completed in 2014[13] and the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project completed in 2016.[14]

• Official website