Italian Construction Giant Merges With Veteran New York Firm

The Italian firm Astm last month completed a merger of its subsidiary Itinera with New York-based Halmar International LLC, in hopes of getting a piece of the U.S. construction market, including public-private partnerships. The $60-million deal, closed July 5, involves 50% of Halmar’s share capital and control.

Chris Larsen, Halmar principal, says Astm approached Halmar a year ago. Due diligence included traveling to Italy to meet the members of the Gavio Group, which owns Astm. “We were impressed with them and saw that the key to the company really is how much people enjoy working for them.”

The merger will aid Halmar’s business plan to grow from about $250 million in yearly revenue to to $500-600 million over the next 5 to 6 years, Larsen adds. “The management structure stays the same. We’re discussing how to develop a plan to send some Americans internationally to gain experience, and to send Italian engineers here.”

Halmar’s current projects include the $247-million replacement bridge over Mill Basin, $160-million in work at LaGuardia airport, and the $158-million Harrison Station replacement. The firm teamed with CCA Civil on New York City Dept. of Transportation’s largest single contract, a $409-million replacement of the Alexander Hamilton Bridge, and with Granite on numerous other major projects.

Itinera is involved in numerous projects throughout the Middle East, Europe, Africa and Latin America. The Gavio Group operates over 3,000 kilometers of toll road concessions in Italy and Brazil.

Aileen Cho, ENR's senior transportation editor, is a native of Los Angeles and recovering New Yorker. She studied English and theater at Occidental College, where a reporter teaching the one existing journalism course encouraged her to apply for the LA Times Minority Editing Training Program. Her journalism training led to her first stories about transportation, working as a cub reporter with the Greenwich Time. Her work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and New York Times. Many of her experiences with engineers and contractors have inspired material for her alternative theater productions way, way off Broadway. For ENR, Aileen has traveled the world, clambering over bridges in China, touring an airport in Abu Dhabi and descending into dark subway tunnels in New York City. She is a regular at transportation conferences, where she finds that airport and mass transit engineers really know how to have fun. Aileen is always eager to hop on another flight because there are so many interesting projects and people, and she gets tired of throwing her cats off her computer in her home office in Long Beach, California. She is a very conflicted Mets/Dodgers fan.

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