[3] Brobyggnads Aktiebolaget, a Helsinki-based engineering company founded in 1889,[1] got a significant order of railway bridges from the Finnish Grand Duchy in 1891.

The good order base increased the income but the company had continuously problems with shortage of cash reserves.

The share capital was increased in 1899, although it didn't succeed in full extent due to tightened money market regulations.

[4] The Empire wanted to limit the economical independence of the Grand Duchy, and in 1902 it was announced that Finland was to be regarded as foreign country in determining toll fees.

This created big problems to Finnish engineering companies, including Kone ja Silta, as they were very dependent on Russian market.

[4] The Imperial Russian Council of Ministers cancelled the order at the end of 1902 after deciding to seek for softer way to tie Finland into Russia.

[2] The situation changed in 1907, when the Council of Ministers again re-introduced prohibition of governmental orders from engineering companies of the Finnish Grand Duchy.

Kone ja Silta bought production machinery from a Copenhagen-based company that had ended separator production; also one person was recruited from the Danish company to work as financial manager of the newly founded Kone ja Silta separator department.

Kone ja Silta produced ammunition and other military supplies and repaired Imperial Russian Navy ships.

[2][7] While fall of the Russian market was a major loss, the company got locomotive, train car and bridge renovation orders from the newly independent state of Finland.

[2] Kone ja Silta got orders for steam ships Carelia, Finlandia and Ostrobotnia from shipowner company Atlantic.

But Atlantic fell into trouble with payments and eventually Kone ja Silta became a major shareholder of the shipping company.

[9] In 1923 company Abloy, which had developed an innovative locking system, outsourced its production and marketing to Kone ja Silta.

In 1926 Kone ja Silta had a long order backlog of pulp machinery, which caused concerns about lack of production capacity.

[2] Therefore, Kone ja Silta bought Sandvikens Skeppsdocka och Mekaniska Verkstad ("Hietalahti Shipyard and Engineering Works") for 8.6 million marks[1][2] in December 1926.

The main line of business was repairing and building of ships, but due to low demand, the Hietalahti yard produced just 15 new vessels in 1918–1931.

The yard had a good order base with significant assignments by the Finnish Navy, but it suffered of lack of capital.

Mattson also wanted to set another engineer, his son-in-law Carl V. Östman, to assist the separator department manager Heikki H. Herlin.

[12] As the parties could not agree the conflict, the main funding bank Pohjoismaiden Yhdyspankki (PYP) named an external consultant to monitor the separator division management practices.

Kone ja Silta invested on enamel production and started producing weighing scales under brand Toledo.

The company had become stock listed in 1915 and later the main owner with 50.4% share became Åland-born shipowner Robert Mattson,[1] who had created significant property during the First World War, but run into debt in the 1920s.

According to rumours, Jacob Wallenberg from the Swedish Stockholms Enskilda Bank reached over Kone ja Silta; whether this was true or not remains uncertain, but it certainly mobilised the patriotically oriented Finnish industrialists.

The board of Wärtsilä met on 23 October and left on the following day an offer of 1 560 marks unit price for Mattson's shares.

[3] Lavonius started urgently to collect a consortium for a competitive offer, but he could not reach the most needed board members Curt Mattson and Jacob von Julin.

Lavonius tried intensively to collect the consortium but his efforts were wasted – the bank and Mattson's estate representatives agreed selling the shares to Wärtsilä.

Wahlforss had deliberately invited representatives of Mattson's estate for a long meeting in a locked hotel cabinet in order to prevent Lavonius to reach them.

Many doubted, how could an east Finnish ironmill, which had just recently recovered from a serious funding crisis, manage a large engineering company that possessed virtually the entire shipbuilding industry of Finland.