Gavio lands in US concessions, 450 million contract with the New York subway – Corriere.it

The former minister Angelino Alfano was appointed president of the subsidiary Astm at the meeting of 26 April, approved a record 2022 budget — dividend of approximately 30 million, revenues up by 33.4% to 3.372 billion, Ebitda up by 60.5% to 1.3 billion and a solid recovery in motorway traffic in Italy (+12%) and in Brazil (+4.7%) — the Gavio group expands into the United States and wins the first American concession. Astm North America, the company that belongs to the Astm group, that of motorway concessions, of the Tortona company, won the c$450 Million Grant to Upgrade New York Subway Stations for Disability Access. It is a question of intervening for the improvement and maintenance of elevators – real vertical transport systems, say sources – within the 5.2 billion dollar plan envisaged by the US government to reduce architectural barriers.

The green bond

Astm beat the Spanish Ohl in the auction and the works will be in public-private partnership with the New York Transportation Authority. The news of the award, anticipated by Repubblica, at the time of writing awaiting official confirmation from America. The concession will be for 25 years and financed with a green bond, by the group which, when the financial statements were approved, recorded net financial debt of 5.485 billion, indicated as supporting the motorway investments in Italy and Brazil.

Expansion in America

In the USA Gavio has been present so far, through Astm North America founded in 2019, in the design & build, projects and construction sector. Now it debuts in concessions. A complicated sector because in the United States every state has an AS regulation for public-private partnerships. This first award for a service concession, but the expansion also to the motorway concessions is not excluded. The group is already participating in public-private partnership initiatives in Louisiana (I-10 Calcassieu Bridge) and Pannsylvania (Penn Major Bridges).

The Associates and the Park Avenue Viaduct

50.5% owned by Aurelia, the family holding company chaired by Beniamino Gavio, and 49.5% by the French private equity firm Ardian, Astm is the subsidiary of the concessions of the Gavio group, which operates in the USA as well as with Astm North America also through Halmar International, a company headed by its subsidiary Itinera. With Halmar, acquired in 2017, last year Gavio was awarded the contract to design and build Penn Station Access in New York, a $1.85 billion project. He’s also resurfacing a viaduct at Park Avenue.

The announcement of the CEO Tosoni

That the attention of the Gavio group (which closed Astm’s 2022 with a net profit of 39.8 million against 1.2 million in 2021) was directed to the United States was already clear from the statement by the CEO, Umberto Tosoni, 26 April: In 2023 we look with confidence to the US market which, through Astm North America, will have to represent our third reference market. The other two are Italy and Brazil.

The routes in Italy and Brazil

In Italy, the group, which claims to be the second operator in the world in the management of motorway infrastructures with approximately 6,200 km of network, has 1,420 km of network, first in the North West. Heading to Gavio, among others, are the A4 Turin-Milan motorway and the A21 Turin-Piacenza (Satap), the A13 Sestri Levante Livorno and the A15 Parma-La Spezia (Salt), the A10 Savona Ventimiglia (Sav) and the A5 Quincinetto Aosta (Sav), such as the Frejus Tunnel. In Brazil, through EcoRodovias, of which it controls 51.8%, the Gavio group manages 11 concessions with approximately 4,700 km of roads, which pass through Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, among other places. There is also a concession in the UK, the 80km Newcastle-Carlisle, controlled with RoadsLink Holding.