QUEENSLAND'S GERMAN CONNECTIONS - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

Thiess today By the late 1970s Thiess Brothers had become a successful and diversified company with a strong presence in coal-mining, and major infrastructure and energy supply projects, writes Detlef Sulzer, and he should know. In 1979 CSR started a hostile takeover battle for Thiess Holdings Ltd which incorporated not only Thiess Brothers operations but also its lucrative gold and coal mines. By January 1980 the majority of shareholders accepted the CSR offer and compulsory acquisition of non-accepting shareholders could proceed. Once acquired, CSR sold off many component parts of Thiess Holdings, one of which was the construction activities. These were bought in 1981 by a consortium comprising Drayton Investments (owned by Sir Leslie Thiess), Hochtief-AG (today Germany’s largest construction company) and Westfield (shopping centres). A difficult period started for the new Thiess Contractors with Sir Leslie Thiess as Chairman and Hans Ramm (from Hochtief AG) as Managing Director. Westfield did not allow investment in desperately needed new earthmoving equipment, instead – after taking out its profit share – promptly put its Thiess holding back on the market, as did Sir Leslie Thiess, who started his own company: Thiess Watkins Ltd. Although Hochtief acquired both holdings it was not allowed to keep them. (Australia at that time did not allow foreign companies to own more than 50% of an Australian company, a law which was changed in 1984.) Hochtief transferred its 100% ownership of Thiess to Leighton Holdings and acquired 49.9% of Leighton Holdings Ltd shares. Thiess Contractors was owned by a holding company of its major competitor Leighton Contractors. Leighton Holdings decided, however, on three separate companies: Leighton Contractors, Leighton Major Projects and Thiess Contractors. It became something of an uphill battle for Thiess Contractors to regain its strength after so many ownership changes. In May 1985 Leighton Holdings appointed Martin Albrecht as Managing Director of Thiess Contractors, bringing a change to the somewhat beleaguered company.

Martin introduced new discipline into the management and reporting process, established a new organisational structure and gradually grew the company, leading by example, embracing new technologies, and demonstrating a caring concern for every person working at Thiess Contractors. The company expanded from its traditional construction role into new areas such as coal mining, where it achieved new efficiencies in areas of industrial relations and the use of large mining equipment. This led to its playing a significant role in establishing major coal mines for clients in the Hunter Valley and central Queensland. These were highly regarded in the industry for safety and productivity. A special relationship was also re-established with the MIM group (now Xstrata), so that Thiess became major operator of several of that company’s larger coal mines. During these years the company was involved in many major, even spectacular, construction projects such as the Tension Membrane Structures (tents) over Expo’88 (Queensland); the Sydney Harbour Tunnel (NSW); the Dawesville Cut (WA); the Cullen Bay Development (NT) and many more. Thiess began diversifying into new disciplines such as Environmental Services, a business that is now larger than the original Thiess Contractors in 1985. Particularly challenging contracts were the rehabilitation of the Maralinga nuclear test site in South Australia, involving excavation and burial of radioactive and contaminated material on a scale and complexity not seen in Australia; and the remediation work on the site of the Sydney 2000 Olympics in Homebush Bay, which was previously a rubbish dump. Thiess Services became a broadly based businesses throughout Australia and eventually also in the United Arab Emirates. Moves into the international arena came steadily, with Indonesia the first and most notable step. During the nineties, new contracts were also undertaken in other parts of Southeast Asia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Jamaica.

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