Who owns 20 of the world’s biggest construction companies?

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International Construction’s latest Icon 200 list ranked the biggest construction companies around the world.

But who owns them? That is what the Construction Briefing set out to find out, exploring the ownership structure of the 20 companies at the head of the list:

1) China State Construction & Engineering (CSCEC)

Ownership: State-owned

Details: The largest construction company in the world by revenue, the structure of CSCEC is suitably complex. It was founded in 1957 as a state company and is a wholly state-owned enterprise. However, China State Construction Engineering Corporation Limited, which is a subsidiary of CSCEC was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2009, raising capital of $7.3 billion in the process. The mammoth business has five main divisions and 12 core business areas, as well as a significant international presence under the Belt & Road Initiative.

2) China Railway Group (CREC)

Ownership: State-owned

Details: China Railway Group specialises in large-scale infrastructure projects, mostly in China but also has a significant presence overseas. It is listed on the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges. However, its major shareholder is the China Railway Engineering Corporation (CRECG), which is itself owned by the Chinese government and under the direct supervision of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC).

3) China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC)

Ownership: State-owned

Details: China Railway Construction Corporation Limited (CRCC) was born out of the former railway arm of the People’s Liberation Army, founded in 1948. Like several of the other biggest Chinese construction companies, CRCC is now listed on the Shanghai and Hong Kong Stock exchanges, as a way of floating the assets of its parent, China Railway Construction Corporation Group (CRCCG). CRCCG itself is under the supervision of the SASAC and is ultimately state owned, aligning with the Chinese government’s strategic control over key infrastructure.

4) China Communications Construction (CCCC)

Ownership: State-owned

Details: Following a similar structure to other state-owned Chinese construction companies, shares in China Communications Construction Company Ltd (CCCC) are traded publicly on the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges, having been listed in 2012. It owns interests in other construction companies around the world, including a 32.4% stake in Portugal-based Mota-Engil and whole ownership of Australian infrastructure builder John Holland Group. CCCC’s parent, China Communications Construction Group (CCCG), is owned by the Chinese government and under the supervision of SASAC. CCCC was one of dozens of Chinese companies blacklisted by the United States in 2020 for its role in helping the Chinese military to construct and militarise artificial islands in the South China Sea, over which China claims ownership.

5) China Metallurgical Group Corporation (MCC)

Ownership: State-owned

Details: China Metallurgical Group Corporation (MCC) is a huge company involved in engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) as well as a range of other activities including mining, real estate development, equipment manufacturing and even papermaking. It merged into China Minmetals in 2015 to become its wholly owned subsidiary. It is state owned but shares in its subsidiary Metallurgical Corporation of China are listed on the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges.

6) Vinci

Ownership: Publicly listed (Euronext: DG.PA)

Details: French construction giant Vinci has its roots in Société Générale d’Enterprises (SGE), founded in 1899, which by 1910 was the second-largest company in electricity and railway construction. Gradually it also grew its expertise in civil engineering and has grown through a series of mergers and acquisitions of other European firms. In 1997, SGE exchanged its household waste treatment and water distribution activities with Compagnie Générale des Eaux (later Vivendi), in exchange for its electrical engineering business (GTIE). The company was renamed to Vinci in 2000 after it merged with Grands Travaux de Marseille (GTM), a leader in French civil engineering founded in 1891. Vinci is now a publicly traded company, offering its shares on the Euronext exchange. Institutional investors (excluding French institutions) own a combined total of 72.8% of the shares, 23.9% of which are based in North America. Of the remainder, French institutional investors own 13.2%, employees have a 9.9% share, individuals investors count for 9.5% of shares, and Qatar Holding owns 3.3%.

7) Bouygues Construction Division

Ownership: Publicly listed (Euronext: FR0000120503)

Details: Bouygues’ construction division is part of the wider, French-owned Bouygues conglomerate that also owns property company Bouygues Immobilier, civil engineering group Colas, Equans, and broadcaster TF1. The company is publicly listed on the Euronext stock exchange but chairman and CEO Martin Bouygues, his brother and deputy CEO Olivier Bouygues, and their families hold 27.4% of the shares through SCDM, a simplified joint stock company. The company’s employees hold another 23.9% through a number of dedicated mutual funds, and French and foreign shareholders own 47.9% of the shares (as of June 2023).

8) ACS (Actividades de Construcción y Servicios)

Ownership: Publicly listed (BME: ACS)

Details: Actividades de Construcción y Servicios (ACS) is a Spanish civil engineering and construction company, formed after the merger of two separate companies in 1997, OCP Construcciones and Ginés Navarro Construcciones. It acquired civil engineering specialist Dragados in 2003 and is also a majority shareholder of German infrastructure giant Hochtief, which owns US contractors Turner and Flatiron. Together, Dragados and Hochtief now form the two main divisions of its construction operations. As of December 2023, ACS held around 70% of Hochtief’s shares. ACS is listed on the Bolsa de Madrid. Its largest single shareholder is Rosan Inversiones, a private investment company owned by ACS chairman Florentin Pérez, which has a 14.16% stake. Investment management firm Blackrock holds a 5.27% stake, while Spanish private investment firm Invernelin Patrimonio has 2.35%.

9) Shanghai Construction Group

Ownership: State-owned

Details: As its name suggests, Shanghai Construction Group is a Chinese construction and engineering business that started out in the city of Shanghai before growing rapidly to undertake projects across China and overseas. The publicly listed Shanghai Construction Group Co is indirectly owned by Shanghai’s SASAC through Shanghai Construction Holdings Group Co and Guosheng Group Co.

10) Lennar

Ownership: Publicly listed (NYSE: LEN)

Details: US-based home construction company Lennar was founded in 1954 and claims to have built over a million homes in the country since then. It has been publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange since 1972, doubling in size in 2000 when it acquired U.S. Home. Institutional investors own the bulk of shares in the company, including the Vanguard Group, SSgA Funds Management and BlackRock.

11) D. R. Horton

Ownership: Publicly listed (NYSE: DHI)

Details: US-based house builder D R Horton also claims to have built more than a million homes in its 45-year history. Like Lennar, it is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange and institutional investors account for the majority of the company’s outstanding shares. Major investors include the Vanguard Group, Black Rock, and Capital Research & Management Co.

12) Larsen & Toubro (L&T)

Ownership: Publicly listed (NSE: LT)

Details: India’s biggest construction company, Larsen & Toubro (L&T), is publicly traded on both the National Stock Exchange of India and Bombay Stock Exchange, as well as being cross-listed on a number of other stock exchanges. As at 31 December 2022, a mix of financial institutions, foreign portfolio investors and mutual funds owned shares in the business. Meanwhile the L&T Employees Trust, which promotes welfare activities for current and retired employees, owned 13.7%.

13) Sekisui House

Ownership: Publicly listed (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 1928)

Details: Founded in 1960 in Japan, Sekisui House is a residential developer that claims to have delivered in excess of two million factory-built homes around the world. The company is publicly listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and the Nagoya Stock Exchange, with financial institutions making up more than half of shareholders.

14) Eiffage

Ownership: Publicly listed (Euronext: FGR:PAR)

Details: French construction group Eiffage was formed in 1993 following the merger of two much older main contractors: Fougerolle, founded in 1844, and SAE, founded in 1924. The company is publicly listed on the Euronext exchange, with a large proportion of its shares held by employees. That is because in 1989, Jean-François Roverato, at the time chairman of Fougerolle, launched an employee buy-out with the help of bank Paribas. A total of 10,561 people, 72% of Fougerolle’s workforce, subscribed. Today, the employees hold just over 20% of the capital of Eiffage (as at 30 June 2023), while four out of five Eiffage employees are shareholders.

15) China Gezhouba Group Corporation (CGGC)

Ownership: State-owned

Details: China Gezhouba is a civil engineering firm specialising in the construction of power plants, bridges, dams and roads both in its home market of China and abroad. The company was listed on the Shanghai stock exchange before being delisted in 2021 upon its merger with the state-owned China Energy Construction Co.

16) Kajima Corporation

Ownership: Publicly listed (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 1812)

Details: Japanese company Kajima Corporation undertakes construction work on a design-build basis as well as being a real estate developer. Trading in its home market of Japan, as well as several overseas markets including North America, Europe, China and Southeast Asia, it is publicly traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. As of September 2023, the biggest shareholders were the Master Trust Bank of Japan and the Custody Bank of Japan at 16.3% and 7.5% respectively. Both are listed as trust accounts. Kimiko Kajima is the third biggest shareholder with approximately 3.3%, followed by Kajima Employee Stock Ownership, with just under 2%.

17) Strabag

Ownership: Publicly listed (Vienna Stock Exchange: STR)

Details: Austrian construction giant Strabag is publicly listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange. Ever since the onset of Russia’s war in Ukraine in early 2022, it has been in the throes of reorganising its shareholder structure. That is because one of its biggest shareholders, MKAO Rasperia, is controlled indirectly by Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. Deripaska has been the subject of European Union sanctions since 8 April 2022. Strabag froze Rasperia’s shares and prohibited it from exercising any of its rights or influence over the contractor. Strabag announced in May 2023 that it would cut the stake of Rasperia to below 25%, from 27.8%. In late December 2023, it announced that Deripaska had attempted to sell MKAO Rasperia’s shareholding to a Russian joint stock company called Iliadis JSC. However, at the time of writing the transaction had not been executed and the shareholding remains frozen. The largest shareholders in the business as of September 2023 were UNIQ Raiffeisen Group, which holds a 29.5% stake, and the family of former Strabag executive Hans Peter Haselsteiner, with 28.3%. His youngest son Klemens Haselsteiner is CEO of the company.

18) Bechtel

Ownership: Privately owned

Details: US engineering and construction company Bechtel dates back to 1898 when Waren A. Bechtel started construction railroads in Oklahoma. In 1925, he and his sons Stephen and Kenneth and his brother Art joined him to incorporate W.A. Bechtel Company. Brendan Bechtel is the current chairman and CEO of the business and the fifth generation of the Bechtel family to run the company, which is still owned privately by the Bechtel family.

19) Hyundai Engineering & Construction

Ownership: Publicly listed on the Korea Exchange (KRX: 000720)

Details: South Korean construction giant Hyundai E&C is publicly traded on the Korea Exchange. Together, Hyundai Motor, Hyundai Mobis and Kia hold nearly 35% of the company (as at 31 December 2022), while domestic institutional shareholders including the National Pension Service and asset management companies hold another 14.9%. Foreign investors account for 24.6% and private investors and others hold another 25.5%.

20) Pulte Group

Ownership: Publicly listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: PHM)

Details: Founded in 1950 when 18-year-old William ‘Bill’ Pulte and his high school friends built a five-room bungalow near Detroit as his first home, PulteGroup is now the US’s third largest housebuilder. Listed on the New York Stock Exchange, institution investors hold over 90% of the company’s shares. Some of the biggest shareholders include the Vanguard Group, Putnam Investment Management, and Greenhaven Associates.