History

ANDRITZ AG has its origins in an iron foundry that was established in 1852 by the Hungarian entrepreneur Josef Körösi in Andritz, a suburb of the city of Graz. Soon after its foundation, the company’s production program was extended to include large capital goods, such as cranes, pumps, water turbines, and later also bridges, steam boilers and engines, as well as mining equipment.

In 1900, ANDRITZ became a stock corporation.

At the end of the First and Second World Wars and during the Great Depression in the early 1930s, ANDRITZ’s production came to a standstill, but committed management and employees succeeded each time in making a new start.

In 1949, ANDRITZ began a lasting cooperation with the Escher Wyss Group of Switzerland, initially in the water turbines sector. ANDRITZ’s product portfolio was revised: Production of steam engines and air compressors ceased, and the focus was placed on water turbines, centrifugal pumps, cranes, and steel structures. In 1951, ANDRITZ embarked on production of complete paper machines in cooperation with Escher Wyss.

In 1950, Creditanstalt-Bankverein of Vienna acquired a majority interest in ANDRITZ.

During the 1960s and 1970s, ANDRITZ continued to grow. The production shops were extended, new machines purchased, and R&D activities intensified. Electrochemical and metallurgical equipment was added to the production program.

The second global oil crisis and worldwide economic stagnation in the early 1980s caused a drop in ANDRITZ’s order intake and the company was operating at a loss, but Austrian government subsidies and drastic rationalization measures enabled the company to survive.

In 1987, AGIV AG, a Frankfurt-based investment company, purchased the ANDRITZ share majority. ANDRITZ began to change its strategic direction, from being a licensee of other equipment manufacturers to become a leading international supplier of its own high-tech production systems.

In 1990, the acquisition of Sprout-Bauer, a US company supplying equipment for mechanical pulp and animal feed production, marked the beginning of the ANDRITZ GROUP’s successful expansion policy through acquisitions. Complementary acquisitions, in addition to research and development, have been an important driver of company growth ever since.

Since 1990, ANDRITZ has acquired and integrated more than 60 companies, pursuing its policy of complementary acquisitions. The largest transactions in terms of sales were the acquisition of Ahlstrom Machinery Group in 2000/2001 (making ANDRITZ a globally leading supplier of pulp production systems) and VA TECH HYDRO’s hydropower section in 2006 (advancing ANDRITZ to a globally leading supplier of hydropower plants).

AGIV AG sold its shareholding in ANDRITZ to a consortium of investment companies (The Carlyle Group, GE Capital, Unternehmensinvest AG, Deutsche Beteiligungs AG) and the Custos private foundation (established by ANDRITZ President and CEO, Wolfgang Leitner).

In 2001, ANDRITZ went public on the Vienna Stock Exchange. Two million newly issued shares were placed successfully with national and international investors.

2003 saw the Secondary Placing of ANDRITZ shares on the Vienna stock exchange. The financial investors sold the entirety of their shareholding in ANDRITZ, which resulted in a rise in free float to over 70%.