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The Beginnings of Energy and Water Service in Mannheim around the Turn of the Century
Centralised tap-water service in Mannheim began in 1888 when the Käfertal waterworks and its network of water pipes went into operation. In 1899, an electricity works with a capacity of 3.5 MW went into operation in the industrial harbour to supply Mannheim with electric power for the first time. The Luzenberg gas works began operation in 1900. On November 8, 1921, the Grosskraftwerk Mannheim Aktiengesellschaft (GKM - Mannheim Central Powerplant) was founded with a participation of the City of Mannheim in order to build a joint powerplant - without its own service area - on the Rhine in Mannheim-Neckarau. In 1923 GKM began operation with a capacity of 12.5 MW. With an electrical capacity of 1545 MW and a thermal capacity of 1000 MW, it numbers today among the largest and most technically advanced, anthracite-fired powerplants in Germany. It produces electric power and district heating using energy-efficient cogeneration (CHP).
The Mannheim Public Utility (Stadtwerke Mannheim-SMA) Is Formed
After the Second World War, the energy and water utilities were first operated as principal administrative divisions of the City of Mannheim. The beginning of district-heating deliveries from GKM in 1962, commissioning of the energy from waste plant on Friesenheim Island in 1964 and the replacement of city-gas generation by natural gas in 1968 were significant events, which have been of major importance for the positioning of this enterprise even today. In 1974 "Stadtwerke Mannheim" was restructured out of the municipal administration and into a separate legal corporate entity. As a consequence, the essential conditions were created for additional, successful development of our corporate group beyond Mannheim's city limits.
Stadtwerke Mannheim AG (SMA) Is Created
Effective October 1, 1974, the activities involved in supplying energy and water were separated from those of public mass-transit through reincorporation into the Stadtwerke Mannheim AG (SMA) and the Mannheimer Verkehrs-Aktiengesellschaft (MVG). These were then in turn consolidated under a joint holding company, the Mannheimer Versorgungs- and Verkehrsgesellschaft mbH (MVV). Energie- and Wasserwerke Rhein-Neckar Aktiengesellschaft (RHE) remained an independent subsidiary of SMA. The sole shareholder of MVV was the City of Mannheim.
Following re incorporation, SMA initially focussed its efforts on its distribution business, i.e., supplying end-consumers in Mannheim with electric power, district heating, gas and water. Since 1982 Mannheim's historically evolved district-heating and natural gas service has been systematically expanded on the basis of an efficient and environment-friendly energy plan. The heart of this plan involved subdividing the city into individual prioritised zones, in which in addition to electric power either district heating or gas was to be supplied. Today, 85% of the flats in Mannheim are supplied with space heating by means of grid-bound energy carriers from our company. In 1987 a 13.6-km-long district-heating transmission pipeline went into operation between Mannheim and Heidelberg. Consistent expansion of grid-bound energy service has led to a decrease in coal- and oil-fired energy generation and has thus contributed significantly to improving the quality of the air in Mannheim as well as in the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan area.
MVV undertook an international initiative in 1990 with its first major consulting commission in Poland to rehabilitate and modernise the district-heating system in the city of Warsaw. In 1993 additional major commissions followed in Budapest and in Shanghai in conjunction with our expanding, international consulting activities.
Liberalisation of electric power and gas markets in 1998 has led to fundamental changes for MVV.
Restructuring into MVV Energie AG and Going Public
As of October 1, 1998, the MVV Group has been restructured and its individual enterprises recorporatised. MVV Energie AG (formerly Stadtwerke Mannheim AG) and MVV Verkehr AG (formerly Mannheimer Verkehrs-Aktiengesellschaft) have been consolidated independently of one another under the umbrella of MVV GmbH as the holding company. MVV Energie AG and its subsidiary MVV RHE AG now form the MVV Energie Group, which went public in March 1999 as the first municipal and regional utility in Germany to do so.
MVV Energie's stock was initially a part of the SMAX. With the restructuring of the German stock indices, its stock was admitted to the reduced SDAX in March 2003 and thus numbers among the 130 top stocks in the classic bourse sector (DAX 30, MDAX 50, and SDAX 50). Only stocks that comply with the criteria of the new Prime Standard have been admitted to this sector. Within the new SDAX, MVV Energie AG has now become a significant asset thanks to it high market capitalisation.
Over 1000 shareholders attended our first general meeting after the IPO in Mannheim's Rosengarten on February 11, 2000. At the general meeting on March 14, 2003, there were over 1500 shareholders..
Substantial Growth after the IPO
Since the IPO, MVV Energie has grown to a new dimension, well beyond the scope of the earlier Stadtwerke Mannheim AG. Its corporate development has been following a clear, value-based growth strategy that has been consistently implemented since the IPO. In the meantime, MVV Energie is considered one of the most innovative and successful enterprises in the German energy sector.
In 2000 MVV Energie acquired 50% + one share in Energieversorgung Offenbach AG (EVO). In 2001 participations followed in Stadtwerke Solingen GmbH (SWS GmbH) and in Stadtwerke Ingolstadt Beteiligungen GmbH & Co. KG (SWI), each with 49.9%. MVV Energie has been continually expanding its activities as a distribution utility and value-added services provider on both a national and international scale. In 2002 a consortium consisting of Ruhrgas Energie Beteiligungs-AG and MVV ESCO Polska S.A., MVV Energie's Polish subsidiary, acquired 49.9% of the shares in the district-heating utility in Szczecin (Poland). MVV Energie also owns shareholdings in 7 regional district heating companies in the Czech Republic. Europe-wide MVV Energie has become the fifth-largest district-heating enterprise. In the sector of biomass powerplants, MVV Energie number among the leading enterprises in Germany after three such powerplants go on stream in 2003.
Long-time CEO Roland Hartung retired at the end of fiscal year 2002/2003. His successor as CEO, Dr. Rudolf Schulten, took the helm as of October 1, 2003. Dr. Schulten, Dipl.-Kaufmann, who was born in Göttingen in 1955, was most recently the CFO at Vattenfall-Europe subsidiary Bewag AG in Berlin.
On 30 April 2004, the bid made by MVV Energie for the purchase of a 51% shareholding in Stadtwerke Kiel was accepted. This profitable new shareholding marks the continuation of our value-driven growth strategy and generates further potential for sales and optimisation.
| 2005: | Formation of MVV Energiedienstleistungen GmbH and MVV Umwelt GmbH |
| Capital increase about almost 10 % |
| Commencement of operations at the waste-to-energy plant TREA Leuna I |
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| 2006: | Formation of Shared service companies:
24/7 Netze GmbH
24/7 United Billing GmbH
24/7 IT-Services GmbH
24/7 Metering GmbH
24/7 Trading GmbH
24/7 Insurance Services GmbH |
| MVV Energiedienstleistungen GmbH acquires IVB Immobilien Versorgung GmbH, Berlin and Industriepark Gersthofen Servicegesellschaft mbH & Co.KG (IGS) |
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| 2007: | Commencement of operations at the waste-to-energy plant TREA Leuna II |
| Capital increase about almost 18 % |
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| 2008: | MVV Energie sells her subsidiary company tp E.on edis energie |
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