Webuild: from Lane in U.S. to Clough in Australia to Fisia Italimpianti, subsidiaries support Group’s growth in key low-risk markets

MILAN, May 17, 2023 - Webuild is pursuing the objectives set under its latest roadmap to expand its business, become more efficient and sustainable, and generate more cash with the help of its subsidiaries as it focuses on low-risk markets that offer greater commercial potential as a result of the large investments being made in infrastructure. The Group is also identifying opportunities in new market segments such as energy transition and agriculture in the form of urea production for fertiliser, transmission lines and renewable energy sources by relying on the technical expertise of recently acquired Clough in Australia. The results produced by its subsidiaries have led to Webuild accumulating an order backlog of €13.7 billion of new orders acquired or in the phase of being finalised so far this year, including €3.5 billion worth of projects for which it has been identified as best offer.

The United States remains a source of growth for the Group, with its subsidiary Lane generating an order backlog of more than €3 billion as of today. Its latest contract, worth €87 million ($96 million), is to replace and rehabilitate the Wateree and Pond bridges along the Interstate 20 (I-20) in Kershaw County of the U.S. state of South Carolina.

Australia is also a key market, where Clough and a joint-venture partner recently reached the financial close and other contractual conditions needed to start a €2.56-billion ($2.8 billion) project to build the Ceres urea plantfor Perdaman Chemicals and Fertilisers in Western Australia. The plant, which will be the biggest in the country and among the biggest in the world, will ensure its production processes to be at the highest standards of sustainability.

Webuild is also bolstering its position in sustainable mobility in Europe. The Group recently announced with its subsidiary Cossi Costruzioni a contract worth approximately €284 million to build a section of the Pedemontana Piemontese highway (Lot 1: Parts 1-2). Among its strategic projects, there is also the railway bypass in Trento valued at €934 million. Awarded in February to Webuild and its SELI Overseas subsidiary, it entails the design and construction of 13 kilometres of railway as part of the quadruplication of a high-speed rail section between Fortezza and Verona, part of an extension of the Brenner Base Tunnel, a mega project on which the Group is developing various lots. Also under the Alps, Webuild's Swiss subsidiary, CSC Costruzioni recently completed the access tunnel of nearly four kilometres at the north end of a new Saint Gothard highway tunnel in the Alps.

In the next three years, the Group intends to strengthen its position in water, a strategic sector with high growth potential where it is already a global leader thanks to the expertise of Fisia Italimpianti. The subsidiary has a presence in the Middle East where it built water desalination and treatment plants known for their technologically innovative component. Across the globe, its plants serve more than 20 million people. It recently announced two contracts that will have it build and manage awater treatment plant at the ZULUF onshore oil complex in Saudi Arabia, marking its entry into the oil and gas sector, and a return to operation and maintenance in the water sector.