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Ailing hardware chain bauMax to be sold

The ailing hardware chain bauMax, with about 4000 workers in Austria, is due to be sold by its owner, Karlheinz Essl, his company announced on Wednesday.

Published: 9 July 2014 18:52 CEST

Ailing hardware chain bauMax to be sold

Photo: APA/HERBERT PFARRHOFER

Essl had given the power of attorney to sell his chain, to waive claims and to use the money obtained by the sale of his famous art collection for his enterprise at the end of April. The "Essl Collection" includes around 7000 paintings worth an estimated €86 million (US$117 million).

In 2012, the huge chain slipped far into the red due to its east European subsidiaries, which also employ thousands of people. bauMax made net losses of €126 million, after minus €47.2 million the year before.

In 2013 it made net losses of €189 million and the equity capital turned €70.7 million negative. The company said that its bank debts were at €638 million.

bauMax has 66 shops in Austria, 24 in the Czech Republic, 14 in Slovakia, 15 in Hungary, four in Slovenia, seven in Croatia, eight in Bulgaria and seven in Turkey. In total, the company employs around 8900 people. On Tuesday bauMax announced that it had sold its 15 shops in Romania.

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Where are Austria's big international companies located?

Here’s where each of the ten largest companies in Austria, by revenue generated last year, are located, both within Vienna and outside of the capital.

One of Central and Eastern Europe’s biggest insurance firms, the Vienna Insurance Group is headquartered in the capital. Their main offices are directly north of the Innere Stadt on Schottenring, close to the Rossau district.

A fellow insurance firm, the Uniqa Group, is located close by. Owning over fifteen significant insurance providers across Europe, they are market leaders alongside Vienna Insurance Group. Their headquarters can be found in the eponymous Uniqa Tower, on Ferdinandstraße close to the Karmeliterviertel.

Erste Group, one of the continent’s biggest providers of financial services, was founded just over two hundred years ago in Leopoldstadt, a suburb adjoining Vienna’s centre to the east. Today, the group is headquartered in the Erste Campus, less than a five-minute walk from Vienna’s central train station.

Founded in the fifties, OMV is the country’s largest oil and gas company. The company owns three European refineries, including one at Schwechat in Lower Austria, near the capital. The company is based in the Hoch Zwei building in the Second District, near the banks of the Danube.

Construction company Strabag, responsible for massive infrastructure projects across Europe and South East Asia, is located across the Danube from OMW, near the Austria Centre and the expansive Donaupark.

Banking giant Raiffeisen International is headquartered in the Weissgerberviertel, north of Vienna’s city centre. Other divisions, including their software development teams, are based throughout the city centre.

Construction company Porr Group, which has many subsidiaries in Austria and involvement in significant railway building projects throughout Europe, has headquarters in Vienna’s south, five kilometres away, in the Favoriten district.

Verbund AG, Austria’s largest energy provider, can also be found outside Vienna’s centre. It is based to the south-west, close to the Mariahilf district and the city’s Westbahnhof, or western train station.

Steel and technology group Voestalpine is located away from Vienna in Linz, Upper Austria, roughly equidistant between Salzburg and Vienna. The company’s headquarters can be found between the Spallerhof district and the Industriegebeit, or industrial area.

Finally, international metals and technology firm Andritz AG is also based outside Vienna, in Graz in Styria. Their headquarters is some distance from the city centre, in the district which gave the company its name: Graz-Andritz.

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