Milan, March 19, 2024 – “Webuild makes itself available to serve Italy, and we are ready to restart working immediately on the Strait of Messina Bridge. Timings are not up to us, but instead rely on the decisional and authorization processes that the project is currently being subjected to. The scientific committee unanimously approved the project, and further assessments will be carried out during the executive phase”. This is what Webuild CEO Pietro Salini said yesterday at Quarta Repubblica, during his interview yesterday evening on the Italian TV channel Rete 4.

Salini then wished to remember that "the Stretto di Messina company, which approved the update made by us to the final project, said works should begin during Summer 2024, when CIPESS closes the authorization process, while the bridge on the other hand should be opened to road and rail traffic in 2032”.

“The Strait of Messina Bridge will allow crossing 3 kilometres of sea separating mainland Italy from Sicily, an island with 5 million inhabitants, as many as Denmark that is connected to Germany with three bridges" continued Salini. “In Italy all large infrastructures brought about a lot of controversies, before and after their construction. In fact, that is what happened when the Autostrada del Sole was built or even the Rome-Milan High-Speed railway line, both today standing as Italy's backbone. And this is what will also be reserved for the Bridge. We are optimistic though and do really think that common sense and the South of Italy's desire to grow in the end will prevail.

Pietro Salini went on then to underline the Group's resilience and capacity to meet and manage the challenges of this period, transforming potential impacts into growth opportunities. “Webuild is made of 87,000 people, with a turnover of over €10 billion, which in the last decade allowed it to significantly grow more than 4 times its original size. We continued in our vision to build large complex infrastructure on a global scale, becoming bigger in size, and a partner to our clients and the institutions, to make our territories grow, while attracting the skills of young men and women, also working with a premium supply chain”. 

In 2023, the Group's order backlog reached its record peak with €64 billion, exceeding the expected target of the Plan as of 2025. Besides fully covering the turnover and the EBITDA target of the Business Plan 2023-2025, the backlog allows us to have visibility over 6 years with regard to the Group's revenues, clearly setting the Group's growth path.

“Webuild demonstrated a great capacity to adapt and to be flexible when managing price rises and the reduction of the workmanship available on the market, both things being more complex to deal with in this period. We gradually moved towards low-risk markets like Australia, Europe, the United States, and the Middle East. We revised the way we participate in tenders, selecting better projects, and we won 90% of our new orders during the past two years thanks to the quality of our offer and not just for our prices”.