b'20142015 Takeovers and restructuresACS Group takes the reins Back in 1934, Horn & Thiess and Thiess Bros worked together to get a start in HOCHTIEFs new owner, constructionQueenslands construction industry. In 1940, Bert Thiess took over Stumpy Horns company ACS Group, takes action on itsshare of Horn & Thiess and the Thiess brothers working futures were even more Australian businesses, with HOCHTIEFunited. They then created various company entitiesoften related to particular jobs increasing its ownership of Leightonor requirements of the timethen put them all together under Thiess Holdings and, Holdings. In 2015, Leighton Holdingseventually, listed shares in that business for public purchase. Then, in 1980, CSR becomes CIMIC Group. acquired Thiess in a hostile takeover, before selling off its non-mining parts. One of those parts was the construction arm, and Les Thiess wanted it back. Here, HOCHTIEF enters the story, becoming a major part of the new ThiessThiess Contractorswith Consolidating into theLes and Westfield. That changed in 1983 when Leighton Holdings agreed to buy Thiess worlds largest miner Contractors outright, but at the same time HOCHTIEF bought 40 per cent of the entire Late in the year, CIMIC GroupLeighton business, making HOCHTIEF a proxy owner of Thiess Contractors. But thatstreamlines all Australian-managedwas just the beginning.mining operations of its subsidiariesThis change meant that Thiess Contractors was now under the Leighton Holdings(Thiess, Leighton Contractors, Leightonumbrella, but it still remained an independent operating entity, competing against Asia, Leighton Africa) under the ThiessLeighton Contractors. In 2014, ACS Group, through HOCHTIEF, increased its shareholding banner. The company now managesin Leighton Holdings and, in turn, Thiess. A strategic review of the Australian operations twenty-four mine sites across sixfollowed; Thiess had been charged with running the groups global mining projects, and continents, extracting coal, iron ore,Leighton Contractors took over the Australian construction projects. At the same time, copper, nickel, gold and diamonds. John Holland (also a Leighton Holdings company) was sold to China Communications Construction Company (CCCC).As the Australian construction and mining industry underwent consolidation, the price of coal and iron ore fell through the floor. It was a complicated time. I was the first Thiess bloke to wander into a Leighton contract, explains Spencer Jose. It was at Solomon [mine]. We were given two weeks to start turning it around, and the focused effort was very real. We connected with [mine owner] Fortescue and we pushed each other to turn it around. Two weeks turned into amonth, then into six months. In the end it was a success. We helped Fortescue take the mine to autonomy, handed back the actual mining, and we did the asset management, autonomy upgrades and all the non-mine infrastructure. It was a good result for everyone.Michael Wright is Thiess current Executive Chair and CEO and has worked for the organisation for more than twenty-five years. He ran Thiess Australian mining division during the structural changes. The mining industry was tough at the time due to commodity price, so the change of structure was a significant change for Thiess,he explains. 103'