APCOA Parking AG is

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

's longest-established full service

parking Parking is the act of stopping and disengaging a vehicle and leaving it unoccupied. Parking on one or both sides of a road is often permitted, though sometimes with restrictions. Some buildings have parking facilities for use of the buildings' ...

management company.APCOA at Sovereign Publications
It manages over 1,400,000 parking spaces across 13 countries, and employs approximately 4,500 people. It is headquartered at

Stuttgart Airport Stuttgart Airport (German: ''Flughafen Stuttgart'', formerly ''Flughafen Stuttgart-Echterdingen'') is the international airport of Stuttgart, the capital of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is christened in honor of Stuttgart's forme ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

History

In 1949,

Howard Metzenbaum Howard Morton Metzenbaum (June 4, 1917March 12, 2008) was an American politician and businessman who served for almost 20 years as a Democratic member of the U.S. Senate from Ohio (1974, 1976–1995). He also served in the Ohio House ...

and

Ted Bonda Alva Theodore Bonda (1917 - October 22, 2005) was the president of the Cleveland Indians from 1973 to 1978. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio, which also served as his death place. He was a partner in Nick Mileti's ownership group who assumed control ...

founded APCOA as the Airport Parking Company of America, Inc. in

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. In 1966, the company was acquired by the

ITT Corporation ITT Inc., formerly ITT Corporation, is an American worldwide manufacturing company based in Stamford, Connecticut. The company produces specialty components for the aerospace, transportation, energy and industrial markets. ITT's three businesses ...

and was made into a division of ITT.APCOA Company History
In 1970, APCOA Autoparking GmbH was founded in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

,Eurazeo buys into European car parks
The Times - February 19, 2007 under the German wing of ITT, called SEL. The company then expanded across Europe, entering

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, capital of

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

, in 1970;

Sunbury on Thames Sunbury-on-Thames (or commonly Sunbury) is a suburban town on the north bank of the River Thames in the Borough of Spelthorne, Surrey, centred southwest of central London. Historically part of the county of Middlesex, in 1965 Sunbury and other ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, in 1981;

Mantua Mantua ( ; it, Mantova ; Lombard language, Lombard and la, Mantua) is a city and ''comune'' in Lombardy, Italy, and capital of the Province of Mantua, province of the same name. In 2016, Mantua was designated as the Italian Capital of Culture ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

in 1985; and

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, in 1989. By the mid-1980s, most of the European in-country subsidiaries 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. The US operations of APCOA were purchased from ITT Corporation through a

management buyout A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management-, and/or leveraged buyout became noted phenomena of 1 ...

in 1975 and eventually merged with Standard Parking in 1998. In 1991,

venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ha ...

company CWB Capital Partners of

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

financed a

. The company changed its name to APCOA Holding AG in 1994, and again to APCOA Parking AG in 1995. It trades on the

Frankfurt Stock Exchange The Frankfurt Stock Exchange (german: link=no, Börse Frankfurt, former German name – FWB) is the world's 12th largest stock exchange by market capitalization. It has operations from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm ( German time). Organisation Locat ...

, with 75% of shares held by UK registered investors. In April 1999, Salamander AG of

Kornwestheim Kornwestheim ( Swabian: ) is a town in the district of Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated about north of Stuttgart, and south of Ludwigsburg. History Origins and Development Kornwestheim can look back at a history ...

acquired 27.1% of APCOA Parking AG shares, and took complete control in October of that year. The company continued to expand through acquisition, including the parking subsidiary of UK based

FirstGroup FirstGroup plc is a British multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...

purchased 98.7% of Salamander AG, to virtually control APCOA Parking AG. After consolidating various partnerships to 100% ownership, the company continued its expansion into

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russ ...

, entering

Rijeka Rijeka ( , , ; also known as Fiume hu, Fiume, it, Fiume ; local Chakavian: ''Reka''; german: Sankt Veit am Flaum; sl, Reka) is the principal seaport and the third-largest city in Croatia (after Zagreb and Split). It is located in Primor ...

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

in 2003. The company was delisted from the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in 2003.

Current operations

On June 30, 2004,

Investcorp Investcorp is a global manager of alternative investment products, for private and institutional clients. Founded in Bahrain in 1982, the firm has offices in United States, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, India, China, ...

acquired 98.3% of APCOA Parking AG shares from EnBW AG through its vehicle Parking Holdings GmbH for €265 million including debt. In 2005 the company entered

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

, and changed the name of Parking Holdings GmbH to APCOA Parking Holdings GmbH (APHG). After a bidding battle with

National Car Parks National Car Parks (NCP) is a private car park operator, with car parks in towns, cities, airports, London Underground and National Rail stations. History NCP was founded in 1931 by Colonel Frederick Lucas. In October 1948 Sir Ronald Hobson ...

owned by 3i, and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

Macquarie Bank Macquarie Group Limited () is an Australian global financial services group. Headquartered and listed in Australia (), Macquarie employs more than 17,000 staff in 33 markets, is the world's largest infrastructure asset manager and Australia's ...

; on 19 February 2007 French based investment company

Eurazeo Eurazeo is a French investment company formed by the merger of Azeo and Eurafrance in April 2001. The company is headquartered in Paris. Eurazeo is a leading global investment group, with a diversified portfolio of €25.6 billion in assets und ...

announced the proposed purchase of APCOA Parking AG for €885 million from Investcorp. APCOA is presently the market leading provider of car parking (by number of spaces managed) in Germany (225,000 spaces), Norway (96,900), Denmark (61,900), Austria (48,100), Italy (42,400), and Poland (12,600).Eurazeo to purchase APCOA

2012 restructuring process

APCOA tried to restructure its significant amount of debt derived from the 2007

leveraged buyout A leveraged buyout (LBO) is one company's acquisition of another company using a significant amount of borrowed money (leverage) to meet the cost of acquisition. The assets of the company being acquired are often used as collateral for the loan ...

from 2012 onwards. In a first step management tried to find equity investors as well as refinancing partners in order to decrease the debt pressure on the companies performance. This process was stopped a year later as the necessary partners could not be found. Already then APCOA's debt was traded actively with

Centerbridge Centerbridge Partners is a multi-strategy private investment firm focused on leveraged buyouts and distressed securities. The firm manages over $32 billion of assets

becoming the major creditor with more than 50% of debt value. Due to the failure of the first process, management decided to restructure itself using a court supervised UK-

Scheme of arrangement A scheme of arrangement (or a "scheme of reconstruction") is a court-approved agreement between a company and its shareholders or creditors (e.g. lenders or debenture holders). It may affect mergers and amalgamations and may alter shareholder o ...

. With this procedure APCOA was able to overrule dissenting creditor minorities previously hindering the restructuring process. On October 30, 2014 the

High Court of Justice The High Court of Justice in London, known properly as His Majesty's High Court of Justice in England, together with the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, are the Courts of England and Wales, Senior Cou ...

in London sanctioned the scheme reducing the companies debt by €440 million through a debt equity swap and introduced additional financing of €80 million. The group is now majority-owned by US and UK-based private investment firm

Centerbridge Centerbridge Partners is a multi-strategy private investment firm focused on leveraged buyouts and distressed securities. The firm manages over $32 billion of assets

, which has taken control through the debt-equity swap.

Notes

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.apcoa.com Transport companies established in 1949 Companies based in Stuttgart Companies formerly listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange Parking companies 1949 establishments in Ohio