Lendlease

The company was established as Lendlease by Dick Dusseldorp[3] in 1958 to provide finance for building contracts being undertaken by Civil & Civic. In 1961 the company acquired Civil & Civic from Bredero's Bouwbedrijf.[4]

Lendlease first listed on the ASX in 1962. Operations expanded to the United States in 1971 and to Singapore in 1973.[5]

In 1982, Lendlease acquired 50% of MLC Life Limited and in 1985 acquired the balance of the company. MLC's multi-manager, multi-style investment philosophy was introduced in 1986. It was later sold to National Australia Bank in the year 2000 [6] for $4.56 billion, one of the biggest mergers in Australian corporate history.[7]

In 1999 the company formed Actus Lendlease with the acquisition of Actus Corporation's MILCON and technical service construction management business, and augmented this business with professionals from Lendlease Design and Lendlease Development.[8] At this time the company also acquired Bovis Construction from P&O.[9] Then in 2000 it bought Amresco's commercial mortgage business.[10] In 2001, Lendlease acquired Delfin Property Group (now Lendlease Communities) for $172 million.[11] It went on to buy Crosby Homes[8] (now Lendlease Residential Development) for circa £240 million in 2005.[12]

In 2009, Steve McCann was appointed CEO.[13] In the same year Lendlease Corporation acquired Babcock and Brown Communities,[14] rebranding the business as Lendlease Primelife. At the time, this acquisition made Lendlease Australia's largest provider of retirement villages.[15][16]

In December 2009, Lendlease was selected by the New South Wales Government to develop Barangaroo.[17]

In 2010, Lendlease announced their first foray into the consumer market with Lendlease Solar.[14] The subsidiary was wound up in early 2011, with no explanation as to why the division had closed.[18]

On 17 February 2011 Lendlease announced wider ranging changes to its group of brands. This announcement meant the retirement of the Bovis, Delfin, Vivas, Catalyst and Primelife brands which were superseded by the unified Lendlease brand.[19]

In late February 2011, Lendlease acquired DASCO in order to position itself to take advantage of the impending Obama administration Health sector boom. The company was immediately rebranded as Lendlease DASCO, and started operating independently of the Lendlease Americas business.[20]

In March 2011, Lendlease completed the acquisition of Valemus[8] (previously known as Bilfinger Berger Australia) from Bilfinger.[21]

In March 2013 the business divested its aged care homes (from the acquisition of Babcock and Brown Communities) to Allity, a business owned by Australian Aged Care Partners.[22]

In 2015, the company rebranded to use "Lendlease" as a single word.[23]

In December 2016 Lendlease formed a joint venture agreement with Energy Made Clean. Energy Made Clean is a wholly owned subsidiary of renewable energy technology developer, Carnegie Clean Energy (ASX: CCE). With EMC and Carnegie's joint offerings, it is the only company in the world to offer a combination of wave, solar, wind, storage and desalination via microgrids. Microgrids are a budding industry and this partnership aims to provide end-to-end technologies that deliver energy independence and a reliable alternative to traditional forms of energy in regional, remote and fringe-of-grid locations in Australia, United States and around the world. This asset was later sold in 2020.[24]

In February 2021 Lendlease announced that Tony Lombardo, previously CEO of Lendlease Asia, would takover from Steve McCann as Group CEO. This took place in June 2021.[25]

The global COVID-19 pandemic led to enforced site closures during the early 2020s, impairing revenues. In February 2022, Lendlease reported a first half loss of $264 million, which it attributed to one-off restructuring costs, COVID-19 issues and asset sales. The company cut about 360 jobs and garnered savings of $160 million.[26] An improved second half to the financial year saw the company post a bottom-line loss of $99 million for the full year, after $333 million in writedowns on existing operations, a 61% drop in development EBITDA to $18 million and a 24% slump in construction earnings to $131 million.[27]

Lendlease's regeneration projects include Barangaroo South in Sydney,[28] Docklands, Victoria in Melbourne,[29] the RNA Showgrounds in Brisbane,[30] and Adelaide Oval in Adelaide.[31]

One of Lendlease's more controversial communities projects is their development for housing and industry of the former Australian Defence Industries ('ADI') land at St Marys (Ropes Crossing & Jordan Springs)[32] in Western Sydney. Some of the group's major communities projects include Springfield Lakes, Queensland.[33][34] Their ADI property is the largest intact area of the biodiverse and endangered plant community, the "Cumberland Plain Woodland".[35]

Lendlease Asia has been working on two large urban development projects, The TRX Lifestyle Quarter in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Paya Lebar Quarter in Singapore.[36]

Lendlease built the western hemisphere's tallest residential tower, standing at 425m tall.

Lendlease Project Management & Construction (previously Bovis Lendlease) provided construction management services for the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York,[37] in addition to a number of other major public buildings throughout the U.S. A Public Private Partnership involved InterContinental Hotels Group and Lendlease, where they joined forces in the Privatization of Army Lodging to deliver quality hotels to United States Army Soldiers, their Families, and official guests of the United States Army. This partnership created IHG Army Hotels, a division of InterContinental Hotels Group.[38] Other urban regeneration projects include Southbank, an area of Chicago, IL.[39]

Soaring Heights, a 6 MW solar development at Davis-Monthan AFB, Tucson, Arizona, United States, is a large Public Partnerships business in the US.[40]

In Europe, major urban regeneration programmes are underway in Elephant and Castle as Elephant Park,[41] and in Stratford, London as The International Quarter London.[42] Lendlease also worked as project manager on a new township at Durrat Al Bahrain on Bahrain Island.[43]

Lendlease oversaw the restoration of the encaustic tile pavements at Palace of Westminster in 2015.

In Europe, Lendlease Project Management & Construction provide project management and construction services for new projects and programmes. In 2015 Lendlease oversaw the restoration of the encaustic tile pavements at The Houses of Parliament.[44]