ABB to establish shared services center in Tallinn
Swiss multinational industrial group ABB is planning to build a shared services center in Tallinn's Ülemiste City business district. Real estate developer Mainor Ülemiste AS confirmed that ABB is planning to rent office space for 500 employees.
Weekly Eesti Ekspress reported early on Wednesday that ABB would become the largest tenant of the developer in the Öpik office building, which is due to be completed in autumn this year.
A source in Switzerland known to ERR confirmed that ABB is about to announce the establishment of a regional shared services center in Tallinn.
Different divisions of the company have been undergoing reconsolidation, as ABB is reducing the number of its global operational groups from eight to three. This means that its presence in different countries is reduced in favor of regional shared service centers, of which one is going to be in Tallinn.
According to Ekspress, searching for suitable premises ABB could choose between the developments of Technopolis Ülemiste and Mainor Ülemiste. Estonian tycoon Ülo Pärnits controls almost half of the former and almost all of the latter.
Technopolis didn’t make the cut because the next major office building in its development, the 13-story Endel Lippmaa House, will not be completed until 2018.
Which of its divisions exactly ABB is planning to move to Tallinn remained unclear. ERR News contacted both ABB Estonia and the multinational’s Swiss head office, but both offices stated that they couldn’t currently comment on the matter.
According to ERR's source, whether or not this step will lead to large-scale layoffs in other countries isn't yet clear.
ABB has been active in Estonia for more than 20 years. ABB AS was founded in December 1991 and has since done business in the energetics and automation sectors. Its Estonian headquarters are located just south of Tallinn in the town of Jüri, where the company's ABB One Campus is located (see image).
ABB AS employed approximately 1,200 people in 2013.
Editor: Editor: Dario Cavegn
Source: ERR, BNS