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Home > SAUDI ARABIA > Spotlight
STEFANO TREVISANI: TREVI LOOKS ABROAD FOR GROWTH
Rome (Ign) - A small company, which works in a field that keeps it out of the limelight, but which recently ended up in all the newspapers, when it was awarded the contract for the reconstruction for the foundations of Ground Zero, since 11 September 2001 the most famous place in the world. This is Trevi Spa, an Italian company working in underground engineering, today led by its managing director Stefano Trevisani: "Ours is the success of a constant search for new solutions to the increasingly complex problems faced by civil engineering the world over".
Let's start with the contract for Ground Zero. Your success in the tender has a high symbolic value: an Italian company will build the foundations of what has become one of the most significant places for America and the western world. Can you tell us how you achieved this?
For ten years we have been taking part in tenders all over America, and Trevi has an operational base in Boston. We took part in this one too, and quite simply won the contract. The order, to be carried out together with Kiewit Construction, an historic American construction group established in 1884, involves building a new diaphragm that will serve to contain the river and at the same time act as a foundation for the new structures to be built on the area where the Twin Towers once stood. The work will accompany the old diaphragm, built 30 years ago, and the total value is €30m, of which 50% is accounted for by our share in the job. Obviously the order has great symbolic significance: the rebirth of Ground Zero is a billion-dollar project which involves a kilometre of tunnels to provide a pedestrian link to the subway lines, while in the old parts of the complex there will be a memorial monument and some of the new buildings that will replace the Twin Towers.
The core business of Trevi is defined "underground engineering". Can you describe your main activities to us?
The Trevi Group is one of the leaders on an international level in underground engineering (special foundations, excavation of tunnels, land consolidation, and the manufacture and commercialisation of specialised machinery and equipment in the sector). It is also active in the sector of drilling (oil, gas, water) both as a producer of systems and providing oil drilling services. It also works on the construction of automated underground car parks and integrated parking management systems. We also have a company division dedicated to the construction of digging equipment.
In 2007 Trevi will be 50 years old: it is listed on the Star index of the Italian Stock Exchange, and in the period 2003-2006 alone, the share rose by 800%. Can you tell us the essential steps in the story of the company and the present situation?
Trevi was established in 1957 as Pali Trevisani, and in 1962 patented its first self-moving pile driving equipment. In 1967 the first Rotary machine for driving large-diameter auger piles was patented. And in the same year we also acquired our first large foreign order for building the foundations of the Apapa road in Nigeria, the road that connects the port to the rest of the country. 2006 should end with business up by 23% at €610m, while the estimates for 2007 foresee profits of €680m, of which almost 200m regarding a series of drilling projects which over the next two years should lead to an average annual increase of 40%. We invest 1.5% of turnover in research and development, concentrated above all in the field of equipment.
Where do you see your company in 20 years' time? Will Trevi grow internally (by widening the range of its activity, etc.) or externally (takeovers etc.)?
Currently, no takeovers are planned, and so we are certainly focussing on internal growth, and at developing turnover: at present 85% is realised abroad. We are pushing above all at expanding in those markets where the opportunities for our company are greatest: the US, the Middle and Far East, North Africa and South America.
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