Bouygues Construction subsidiary Bouygues Bâtiment International has acquired Karmar, a major building contractor in Poland.

Founded in 1991, Karmar operates chiefly in the Warsaw building sector (residential, offices, shopping centres, etc.). The company has 140 employees and posted sales of 50 million euros in 2006. Its main projects are with repeat private clients.

Bouygues Construction's local subsidiary Bouygues Polska has carried out construction projects in Poland since 1995, including the Citibank Plac Teatralny headquarters, Saski Business Park, several shopping centres, and offices and housing more recently. In November 2006 Bouygues Construction won a 72 million euro contract for the construction of a section of the A4 motorway in Poland between Zgorzelec and Krzyzowa.

This acquisition enables Bouygues Construction to sustainably boost its operations in a fast-growing country. It is perfectly in line with the group's development strategy in Europe. In 2006, Bouygues Construction made a number of acquisitions, including Thermal Transfer (UK), VCES (Czech Republic), Szigma-Coop (Hungary), Marazzi and Balestra-Galiotto (both based in Switzerland).

At 31 March 2007, Bouygues Construction's order book in Central Europe totalled 240 million euros, a 50% increase over 31 December 2006.