APCOA Parking

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APCOA Parking AG is Europe's longest-established full service parking management company,^[1] managing over 860,000 parking spaces, across 15 countries and with around 4,500 employees. It is head quartered at Stuttgart Airport in Germany

1 History
2 Current operations
3 References
4 External links

[edit] History

APCOA was founded as the Airport Parking Corporation Of America, Inc in Cleveland, Ohio, a division of the ITT Corporation of New York, USA in 1947.^[2]

In 1970, APCOA Autoparking GmbH was founded in Stuttgart,^[3] under the German wing of ITT, called SEL. The company then expanded quickly across Europe, entering:^[2]

1970 - Vienna, Austria
1981 - Sunbury on Thames, England. Latterly won the first open local authority tender for on-street enforcement services in the City of Westminster, and provide the UK's first "whole of borough" parking solution to Southwark Council from car park to local street.^[4]
1985 - Mantova, Italy
1989 - Rotterdam, Holland

By the mid 1980's, most of the European in-country companies had been divested from ITT, and slowly over the next ten years the management of APCOA Autoparking GmbH began to re-integrate the group under common ownership.^[1]

In 1991, venture capital company CWB Capital Partners of London financed a management buyout. The company changed its name to APCOA Holding AG in 1994, and in 1995 changes its name to APCOA Parking AG and floats on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, with 75% of shares held by UK registered investors. The company now embarks on a period of acquisition, expanding to include locations including: Karlsruhe; Warsaw, Poland; Antwerp, Belgium; and in 1999 Europark in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, a band which APCOA often uses as an alternate to its main brand.^[2]

In 1999, Salamander AG of Kornwestheim acquired 27.1% of APCOA Parking AG shares in April, and took complete control from October. The company continued to expand through acquisition, including: the parking subsidiary of UK based First Group. In 2002 EnBW-AG of Karlsruhe buys 98.7% of Salamander AG, to virtually control APCOA Parking AG.^[2]

After consolidating various partnerships to 100% ownership, the company continues its development path by expanding into Eastern Europe, entering Rijeka, Croatia in 2003. The company was delisted from the Frankfurst Stock Exchange in 2003.^[2]

[edit] Current operations

On 30 June 2004 Investcorp acquired 98.3% of APCOA Parking AG shares from EnBW AG, through its vehicle Parking Holdings GmbH for €265 million including debt.^[3] In 2005 the company entered Switzerland, and changed the name of Parking Holdings GmbH to APCOA Parking Holdings GmbH (APHG). The company has since entered the Finnish market. APCOA is presently the market leading provider of car parking (by number of spaces managed) in six European countries:^[5]

Germany (225,000)
Norway (96,900)
Denmark (61,900)
Austria (48,100)
Italy (42,400)
Poland (12,600)

After a bidding battle with National Car Parks owned by 3i, and Australia's Macquarie Bank;^[3] on 19 February 2007 French based investment company Eurazeo announced the proposed purchase of APCOA Parking AG for €885 million from Investcorp.^[5]