The Foundation Group – an innovative and sustainable model

Keeping with the times, anticipating developments and trends and taking account: using this model, the RAG-Stiftung is able to solidly finance the perpetual obligations in line with its mission and to generate yields to this end.

This is why the RAG-Stiftung holds strategic investments in companies whose actions are guided by an orientation towards the future. This includes RAG Aktiengesellschaft on the one hand, which handles the operational implementation of the perpetual obligations on behalf of the RAG-Stiftung as its wholly owned subsidiary.

On the other hand, this also includes Evonik Industries AG, in which the RAG-Stiftung has held a stake since its foundation in 2007. Today, the foundation still owns around 53 per cent of the exchange-listed company. Dividend payments from Evonik make a significant contribution to the financing of the perpetual obligations.

Vivawest GmbH was created in 2012 through a merger of Evonik Immobilien and THS, of which the RAG-Stiftung also owns 58 per cent directly and indirectly, including the shares of RAG Aktiengesellschaft. Finally, the RAG-Stiftung owns 100 per cent of RSBG SE, which considers itself to be a long-term partners to companies in the SME sector.

The RAG-Stiftung generates a part of its regular revenue from income from its investments in the three above-mentioned companies. Three examples from the strategic investments illustrate how the companies have taken a modern and innovative approach to prepare themselves for the challenges of our time.

Vivawest is amongst the leading residential companies in North Rhine-Westphalia. With its roots in building flats for miners, today Vivawest maintains nearly 120,000 flats in some 100 communes along the Rhine and Ruhr rivers. The company thus provides homes for approximately 300,000 people. Its stated objective is to couple economic and ecological efficiency with social responsibility. In doing so, Vivawest brings together traditional mining values like solidarity and a spirit of community with climate action and the objectives of its business operations.

In its climate protection strategy, Vivawest adopted the goal of making its entire housing stock climate-neutral by 2045. Achieving this is a great challenge, because flats have to be gradually renovated and upgraded in terms of energy efficiency, all while people continue to live in them. The improvements are thus being carried out step by step, in close coordination with the renters.

Measures include insulation of the facades, conversion of heating to heat pump technology and installation of photovoltaic units on roofs. This conversion requires major investments, not least because the costs for construction materials and tradecraft services have risen and will continue to rise.   
In this regard, Vivawest strives to find a balance between future- and climate-friendly measures, profitability and affordable rents.

Moreover, the company also develops climate-friendly neighbourhoods along the Rhine and Ruhr rivers where new builds and energy renovation go hand in hand. The Bergmannsgrün (‘Miner’s Green’) development in Dortmund-Huckarde, where Vivawest is building new affordable housing with participation of the tenants, is one example of what such a model neighbourhood can look like. Additionally, several hundred flats are being modernised and upgraded in terms of energy efficiency. The portfolio of services is rounded out by offers catering to the residents’ daily needs: in future, for example, the neighbourhood will be home to not only modern residential buildings with lush greenery,

but also package stations, e-bike, e-scooter and car rental services, co-working spaces, shops and a kindergarten. The neighbourhood provides valuable insights into how climate action and living can work together in the future, and thus is perfectly in accordance with the longterm goals of Vivawest.