Founding The company was established as
Lendlease by
Dick Dusseldorp in 1958 to provide finance for building contracts being undertaken by
Civil & Civic. In 1961, the company acquired Civil & Civic from Bredero's Bouwbedrijf. Lendlease first listed on the ASX in 1962. Operations expanded to the United States in 1971 and to Singapore in 1973. In 1982, Lendlease acquired 50% of
MLC and in 1985 acquired the balance of the company. MLC's multi-manager, multi-style investment philosophy was introduced in 1986. It was later sold to
National Australia Bank in the year 2000 for $4.56 billion, one of the biggest mergers in Australian corporate history.
Expansion and major acquisition In 1999, the company formed Actus Lendlease with the acquisition of Actus Corporation's MILCON and technical service construction management business, and augmented this business with professionals from Lendlease Design and Lendlease Development. Around this time, the company also acquired the British-based builder
Bovis Construction from
P&O. During 2000, it bought
Amresco's commercial mortgage business. One year later, Lendlease acquired
Delfin (now Lendlease Communities) for $172 million. It went on to buy
Crosby Homes Barangaroo, Valemus Acquisition, One Lendlease Era In 2009, Steve McCann was appointed CEO. In the same year Lendlease Corporation acquired Babcock and Brown Communities, rebranding the business as
Lendlease Primelife. At the time, this acquisition made Lendlease Australia's largest provider of retirement villages. In December 2009, Lendlease was selected by the
New South Wales Government to develop
Barangaroo. In 2010, Lendlease announced their first foray into the consumer market with Lendlease Solar. On 17 February 2011 Lendlease announced wider ranging changes to its group of brands. This announcement meant the retirement of the Bovis, Delfin, Vivas, Catalyst and
Primelife brands which were superseded by the unified Lendlease brand. In late February 2011, Lendlease acquired DASCO in order to position itself to take advantage of the impending Obama administration Health sector boom. The company was immediately rebranded as Lendlease DASCO, and started operating independently of the Lendlease Americas business. In March 2011, Lendlease completed the acquisition of
Valemus In March 2013, the business divested its aged care homes (from the acquisition of Babcock and Brown Communities) to
Allity, a business owned by Australian Aged Care Partners. In 2015, the company rebranded to use "Lendlease" as a single word. In December 2016, Lendlease formed a joint venture agreement with Energy Made Clean. Energy Made Clean is a wholly owned subsidiary of renewable energy technology developer, Carnegie Clean Energy (ASX: CCE). With EMC and Carnegie's joint offerings, it is the only company in the world to offer a combination of wave, solar, wind, storage and desalination via microgrids. Microgrids are a budding industry and this partnership aims to provide end-to-end technologies that deliver
energy independence and a reliable alternative to traditional forms of energy in regional, remote and fringe-of-grid locations in Australia, United States and around the world. This asset was later sold in 2020. In February 2021, Lendlease announced that Tony Lombardo, previously CEO of Lendlease Asia, would takeover from Steve McCann as Group CEO. This took place in June 2021. The global
COVID-19 pandemic led to enforced site closures during the early 2020s, impairing revenues. In February 2022, Lendlease reported a first half loss of $264 million, which it attributed to one-off restructuring costs, COVID-19 issues and asset sales. The company cut about 360 jobs and garnered savings of $160 million. An improved second half to the financial year saw the company post a bottom-line loss of $99 million for the full year, after $333 million in writedowns on existing operations, a 61% drop in development EBITDA to $18 million and a 24% slump in construction earnings to $131 million.
Australia focus In May 2024, Lendlease announced plans to sell its overseas operations and to be focused on its domestic operations in Australia by late 2025. It described its overseas markets as a "drag" on shareholder returns; its new strategy will focus on simplifying the firm's structure, reducing costs and leveraging its competitive strengths. On 1 January 2025, Lendlease announced the sale of its UK construction business to US private equity business
Atlas Holdings for £35 million, with completion targeted before the end of June 2025. The deal was completed in March 2025 when the business was renamed
Bovis, resurrecting a brand retired in 2011. ==Regions==