PORR has acquired a majority stake of 74.97% in the longstanding German company Knape Bahnbau GmbH. 25.03 % remains with Knape Gruppe Holding GmbH. The medium-sized company, which has a workforce of 86 people, specialises in railway construction, cable laying and maintenance. Knape Bahnbau has excellent positioning in the region from its headquarters in Dorfen, in the district of Erding (near Munich).

PORR CEO Karl-Heinz Strauss: “The acquisition is an opportunity to consolidate our position in German railway construction, to increase our market share in the region and to realise even more exciting projects for our customers. We value Knape Bahnbau in particular for its existing references and highly qualified staff.” The team will remain in place unchanged and the company will continue to operate under its current name.

PORR has been active on the German market for a long time, with extensive expertise in civil engineering in general and railway construction in particular. PORR has already laid more than 300 km of its patented Slab Track Austria ballastless track system as part of the project Deutsche Einheit Nr. 8. Large-scale projects currently underway include the realisation of around 35 km of Slab Track Austria as part of Stuttgart 21 (Stuttgart–Ulm line).

Tapping into potential

Steffen Knape, Managing Director of Knape Gruppe Holding, sees myriad advantages for Knape Bahnbau through PORR coming on board: “With PORR as a skilled and successful partner, we’re taking Knape Bahnbau to the next level, tapping into potential, and continuing the tremendous success of recent years. The strong team at Knape Bahnbau has shown how to deliver profitable growth for the benefit of our customers. I look forward to continuing to support this approach closely in future.”

The Knape Group is an association of independent companies in the railway sector, now run by the third generation of the family. The companies in the group offer comprehensive solutions for the development, planning and realisation of all aspects of railway construction.