Facility and real estate service provider Apleona has successfully merged with peer Gegenbauer, to create a pan-European business with revenues of around €3.5 bn.
The new group, which will operate under the Apleona name across all divisions, will have around 40,000 employees.
Its core business remains integrated facility management with a strong focus on technical building management and the markets of Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
In Germany, Apleona has come out of the merger stronger in terms of its regional coverage and its vertical integration across all services and, according to the company, is now a market leader by a significant margin.
Apleona’s CEO, Dr. Jochen Keysberg, said: 'In Germany, we can now offer our customers comprehensive hard and soft services from a single source. More and more major customers expect us to deliver such integrated services entirely through self delivery.'
Keysberg noted that strategic consulting expertise and the ability to deliver on key issues such as ESG, decarbonisation, energy management and building digitalisation would also be vital for strong organic growth in Germany and Europe.
He added: 'On key European FM markets, we will continue to target our own augmentation so as to secure market-leading positions there as well.'
Apleona acquired other FM companies in Austria, Ireland, the UK and Poland in the past 18 months.
Moving forward, Apleona’s operating activities will be bundled into four group divisions. As one of the group’s chief operatng officers (COOs), Michael Engel will continue to be in charge of international business in the EMEA region as well as for the business with large customers bundled in the International Corporate Clients (ICC) division.
Another Group COO, Christian Kloevekorn, is responsible for all soft services (cleaning, security and property services) in Germany. Dr. Gert W. Riegel, a further group COO, is the head of integrated and hard services plus real estate management in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Direct responsibility for building technology and interior fit-out remains with CEO Keysberg. Meanwhile, in his role as the group’s chief financial officer, Dr. Georg J. Fronja is the final member of the five-person executive board of the Apleona Group.
