In Berlin the renowned Roland Berger consulting firm today awards successful German companies with the “Best of European Business Award” (BEB). For the third time this European-wide contest takes place in Germany. All in all there are more than 6000 companies from Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, Spain, Poland and Portugal taking part. A national jury nominates the respective national winners.
The overall winners will be awarded on February 21st and 22nd in the course of the European Business Summit in Brussels. Apart from leading business men and politicians the event in Brussels will also be attended by Mr. Barroso who is the chairman of the EU Commission.
According to the organizers, those companies which were selected for the final stage of the contest did very well in their respective countries in categories such as “profitable growth” or “cross-border deals”.
Among those major German companies nominated are the minerall oil conglomerate Marquard & Bahls, the Bilfinger Berger construction company, the Salzgitter steel company, the food retailer Lekkerland, Benteler who are a supplier for the car industry as well as the chemicals producer BASF.
With regard to medium-sized companies the jury selected among others ELG Haniel, a stainless steel recycling company, the sports article manufacturer Puma, Schmitz Cargobull who are operating in the utility vehicles industry, Georgsmarienhütte, who are steel producers, the pharmaceutical conglomerate STADA Arzneimittel, the Leoni supplier for the car industry as well as Claas, a producer of agricultural machines.
In the category of successful cross-border takeovers the companies nominated are BASF following the successful takeover of the US company Engelhard, who are specialists for catalytic converters and fine pigments, as well as STADA Arzneimittel which took over the pharmaceutical group Hemofarm from Serbia. Further nominees are Continental, a supplier to the car industry, for the takeover of Motorola Automotive Electronic, a company from the US, Leoni, a supplier to the car industry for the takeover of the French Valeo Connective Systems (VCs), Fresenius SE for their takeover of the Renal Care Group as well as the K+S steel producer for their takeover of Sociedad Punta de Lobos, a company from Chile.
Further information and the final results will be soon available on the contest’s website. 