Double maxi order for two Italian companies: Salini Impregilo secures a half-billion-dollar deal in Oman, Abu Dhabi and the United States, but above all Leonardo who, through the Eurofighter consortium, wins a 5-billion-pound contract in Qatar. This latest news in particular is having strong repercussions on the Stock Exchange, where Leonardo's share gained 2,7% above 10 euros per share at the opening session and is the best stock on the FtseMib (which opened in slightly negative territory).
Leonardo's order came through Bae Systems, 33% partner of the Eurofighter Typhoon Consortium in which the Italian group has a 21% stake: Bae has announced that it has been awarded a contract by the Government of Qatar for the supply of 24 Typhoons whose delivery is expected for 2022. The value of the contract, subject to the financing conditions and the receipt of the first payment expected for the first half of 2018, amounts to approximately 5 billion pounds sterling, 5,6 billion euros at current exchange rates.
Salini Impregilo was instead awarded contracts for a total value of 490 million dollars in Oman, Abu Dhabi and the United States, strengthening the group's global positioning in the construction of large complex infrastructures, and its leadership in the water and transportation sectors. In detail, Salini Impregilo enters the Oman market with Fisia Italimpianti, a Group company, by winning a contract worth 100 million dollars for a desalination plant to be built in joint venture with the company Abengoa for the customer ACWA Power, Private Saudi Lead Developer, together with the other two developers, Veolia and Dhofar International for Investment and Development Co SAOG. The JV, in which Fisia Italimpianti holds a 51% stake, will build a 113.650 mc/d reverse osmosis (RO) desalination plant which will supply drinking water to the city of Salalah, in the south-west of the country.
In Abu Dhabi, Salini Impregilo has been awarded a contract worth USD 200 million for the design and construction of a road link through two islands of Abu Dhabi, to connect the Capital District and the Central Business District, for which the capital of the Emirates United Arab has foreseen a development plan by 2030, as a stimulus for its economic growth. Once completed, by 2020, the road connection between the two islands of Umm Lafina and Al Reem it will cross a mangrove reserve, where Salini Impregilo will replant twice the number of specimens lost during the works, according to sustainability criteria that the group pursues in all its works.
In the United States, Lane Construction, a subsidiary of the Salini Impregilo Group, has been awarded two contracts in the road sector in Virginia, worth a total of 190 million dollars. The contracts strengthen the Group's presence in the US market and once again emphasize its leadership in the country's road and highway sector. The first contract, worth 105 million dollars, provides for the construction of an interchange in Virginia Beach, part of a subphase of the I-64/I-264 Interchange Improvements project. Work is scheduled to begin in spring 2018 and be completed by fall 2021. The second contract, valued at $85,6 million, is to construct a through road along an eastern portion of I-66 in the Ballston area. Construction will begin in mid-2018 and will take around 30 months to complete.
