Press Releases 2008

February 19, 2008

Herbert Bodner celebrates his 60th birthday

Herbert Bodner, Chairman of the Executive Board at Bilfinger Berger AG, will turn 60 on February 20, 2008.

Herbert Bodner was born in Graz, Austria. He is married and has two daughters. After graduating from the University of Stuttgart with a degree in civil engineering, he began his career at Ed. Züblin AG, and was active internationally already in the early stages of his professional life. He joined the Bilfinger Berger Group in 1991, taking on various management functions at important international subsidiaries. In 1997 Herbert Bodner was appointed Member of the Executive Board and in 1999 he became its Chairman.

Bilfinger Berger’s strategic realignment from a construction company to a Multi Service Group, initiated in the 1990’s, bears his signature to a great extent. The funds necessary for strategic acquisitions were generated through the sale of financial investments. Strict criteria applied to the selection of takeover candidates ensured that the companies acquired could make a significant contribution to net profit. Since 1999, the Group’s output volume has doubled to €9.2 billion and net profit, at €134 million, is six times higher than it was at that time.

While the long years of recession in the German construction industry had far-reaching consequences for many competitors, Bilfinger Berger under the leadership of Herbert Bodner managed to clearly reduce its dependence on cyclical demand in construction by systematically expanding a successful services business. Comprehensive services for industrial plants, real estate and power plants now contribute stable margins and improve the quality and structure of the company’s earnings. The concessions business, which was expanded at the same time, provides Bilfinger Berger with good long-term earnings perspectives with privately designed, financed and operated buildings and transport structures. In order to further consolidate the Group’s leading global position in construction, activities in the Civil and Building & Industrial divisions were reorganized. The goal of the realignment was an increase in profitability, a stronger orientation toward the needs of the client and a concentration on selected markets. The forming of the second largest construction company on the Australian continent in recent years is one symbol of this concentration.

As Chairman of the private financing committee at the German Construction Industry Association, Herbert Bodner has worked hard to promote privately financed solutions. His contributions were instrumental in turning public private partnerships into an interesting procurement alternative in Germany. He is pushing for a breakthrough in the acceptance of privately financed solution models in transport projects, too.

Herbert Bodner and his colleagues on the Executive Board have made it their goal to continue to drive the expansion of Bilfinger Berger and to further increase both earnings and enterprise value.