Good morning, and welcome to the Webuild first half 2026 results conference call. On today's call, we will have Pietro Salini, Chief Executive Officer, and Massimo Ferrari, General Manager, Corporate and Finance. Please note, this conference is being recorded, for the duration of the call, your lines will be on listen only. You will have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the call. This can be done by pressing pound key five on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. I will now hand you over to your host, Pietro Salini, to begin today's conference. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you, Zach. Good morning, everyone, thank you for joining our conference call on our group first half results. Let me start with the headline. We are proud to present a very strong first half result that keep us firmly on our industrial trajectory. The environment was demanding inflation, high interest rates, geopolitical uncertainty, and supply chain pressure. On top of that, the two NEOM contracts in Saudi Arabia were canceled. Webuild delivered. The scale and the diversification of our backlog absorbed the cancellation in full, our 2026 guidance already reflects it. Let me talk through the numbers. Revenues held at EUR 6.7 billion, in line with the record first half of last year. Profitability improved further. EBITDA margin rose to 10% and EBIT margin to 7%, continuing on the improvement path we recorded in the last years. Our financial position remains strong.
A net cash EUR 110 million with gross leverage broadly unchanged at 2.67 x. The order backlog stands at a robust EUR 47 billion, fully covering our 2026 revenue guidance. New orders reached EUR 7.7 billion. We see a strong momentum moving forward into the second half of the order intake. The book-to-bill stood at 1.2 x. To summarize, Webuild is diversified and disciplined. No single project or market can affect our ability to create value. We have reached scale and market leadership. Our priority is to turn that scale into additional value. That is the direction of the new 2026-2029 business plan we will present at the end of September. Deeper vertical integration, technological innovation, and profitable growth. We want clear aim, stable and predictable cash generation. We are not waiting to start. Yesterday, we announced that voluntary tender offer for Trevi, the first tangible step of that plan.
By acquiring Trevi, we will bring critical high-value expertise in-house, gaining greater control over execution and improving competitiveness in tenders involving complex geotechnical challenges. We will discuss the strategic rationale in details later. We look to the coming years with confidence. In slide five, we show some of our major operational milestone in Italy and abroad for this six month. In Italy, we made significant progress on ongoing high-speed rail, Napoli-Bari, Messina-Catania, and Salerno-Reggio Calabria, on the new breakwater for the Port of Genoa. Abroad, we opened 11 km of new highway lanes in Florida, ahead of schedule, inaugurated the Senqu Bridge in Lesotho.
Two further milestones confirm our credibility and financial discipline. The 2026 Sustainability Reporting Award and the successful EUR 500 million bond issued in May, a clear sign of investor confidence. Our track record is recognized internationally. We are number one in water, number one in Italy, and number six in Europe. Australia continue to be one of the most important growth markets, and we are the third player there. I now leave the floor to Massimo for a full overview of the financial result.
Good morning to everybody, and thank you, Pietro. Before I go through the results, let me remind you that we are presenting the recurring performance of the business. You can find details of the adjustments in the presentation appendix. Let me start with slide seven. At the top line, we maintained the same record level of first half 2025. At EUR 6.7 billion, the group shows how it can maintain productions levels and absorb the impact of the two very important NEOM contracts being canceled by the client. An impact of around EUR 250 million in the first half, and more than EUR 550 million for the full year. The strength and diversification of our backlog protect our volumes and marginality. Margins improved. EBITDA was EUR 673 million, up 14% year-on-year. EBIT was EUR 464 million, up 15%.
EBITDA margin increased by 120 basis points to 10.1%, and EBIT margin by 90 basis points to 7%, both versus first half of 2025. The improvement reflects strict cost discipline and the effectiveness of the contractual and operational solutions we have adopted. Turning to slide eight. More than 90% of revenues were generated in low-risk countries, with Italy, North America, and Australia the biggest contributors. More than 60% comes from international markets, with revenues well-balanced by geography. First half production was driven by our largest projects, already mentioned by Pietro, in Italy, in Australia, and also some other in U.S.. The revenue contribution of the top 10 projects, down to 53%, shows how market diversification matters. It reduces exposure to local shocks, mitigates project-specific risk, and makes the group's revenue profile more balanced and resilient.
By business area, sustainable mobility and clean hydro energy are the largest contributors, representing together around 90% of the revenues for the period. Let's see in detail some lines of the P&L in slide nine. Financial income was EUR 49 million, down EUR 11 million, mainly due to a reduction in average balances of bank deposit. Financial expenses increased by EUR 93 million. This increase is no cash. The larger part is a deliberate trade-off in favor of cash. By waiving interest on some receivables under settlement agreements, we accelerated the collections, added new work to our backlog, and reduced our claim exposure. The remaining part is a genuine one-off write-down of certain financial receivables. The net exchange results was positive for EUR 32 million, impacted by the performance of U.S. and Australian dollar and Colombian peso against the euro.
These effects tend to end up being neutral over the course of the years. Most of them are non-monetary. Proactive decision to de-risk the portfolio and protect future profitability on certain projects completed or nearing completion in North America and Australia had an impact on investment results. The exposure is now closed, with no further losses expected. In short, the underlying quality of our results is intact. Net income stood at EUR 113 million. Moving to slide 10, we highlight our continued financial discipline. We maintained a positive net cash position of EUR 110 million. It's the eighth semester in a row that we achieved a positive net cash. This marks a structural change. It stood at EUR 363 million at year-end 2025. The decrease reflects the typical seasonal absorption of working capital that we normally see in the first half of the year.
The decrease also reflect around EUR 210 million of CapEx in the first half. For the full year, we expect a total CapEx of around EUR 700 million. At the same time, we preserved a disciplined leverage profile. Gross debt was EUR 3.3 billion at the end of June 2026. The increase versus end 2025 reflects the impact of the new bond issue. We also assumed that the Panama Canal Bank debt, which was previously accounted for at equity. What matter most is the gross leverage that remained almost unchanged at 22.67 x. In fact, the increase in gross debt should be seen as an opportunistic pre-funding transaction. We tap the favorable market windows to give greater flexibility and create additional liquidity while keeping the net position under control. You can see on slide 11 on how the recent bond issuance has further strengthened our financial profile.
The EUR 500 million bond issued in May and maturing in 2032 attracted orders exceeding 5x the offer size, generating a record demand of approximately EUR 2.5 billion. Around 75% of investors were from outside Italy, mainly from U.K., France, and Germany. The issue helped us extend the maturity of our debt. We will have the first expiration date material in 2028. Today, more than 90% of our corporate debt maturities start from the fourth quarter of 2028 onwards.
This also gives us greater long-term financial flexibility. Our structure is predictable, with 95% of debt at fixed rate. The average cost of debt remains at 5.1%. On liquidity, we have a very strong position, supported by EUR 2.4 billion of cash and around EUR 1 billion of fully undrawn revolving credit facilities. This financial strength is recognized by the rating agency, as you know, both Fitch and Standard & Poor's confirm Webuild with a BB+ rating and stable outlook. I thank you for your time. Pietro, over to you.
Thank you, Massimo. Let's move to slide 13. Our strength lies in the quality and visibility of our order book. As shown at the top of the slide, the total order backlog stands at EUR 53.7 billion, including EUR 47 billion for construction and EUR 7 billion related to concession and operation and maintenance activities. If we include the projects awarded after June 2026 and the best offers already secured, construction alone rises to approximately EUR 49 billion. This means that despite the termination of the two NEOM contracts, which reduced it by around EUR 3.8 billion, the overall backlog remains at a very significant level, almost in line with last year. It continues to provide substantial visibility on future revenues. 2026 target revenues are fully covered in large part of our business plan. Beyond the size, quality matters just as much.
It is high quality, supported by contracts with price adjustment mechanism that provide protection against inflation. It therefore offers not only coverage, but also greater predictability in project execution and profitability. Turning to slide 14, what keeps this backlog replenished is our commercial momentum. In the first half, we already secured EUR 7.7 billion of new orders. It represent a book-to-bill of 1.2 x over the six month. The majority of the new orders came from our core markets. Italy contributed EUR 3.6 billion, North America EUR 2.6 billion, and Oceania EUR 1.2 billion. Among the projects awarded are Rome Metro Line C extension in Italy, Ohio River Tunnel project in United States, Kwinana Gas Power Plant in Australia. We reentered the New Zealand market with an award of Christchurch Men's Prison. The pipeline ahead remains strong, as I'll show you on the next slide. Let's move on slide 15.
The megatrends determining investment in infrastructure remain unchanged. This includes climate and energy transition, water security, urbanization, defense, and digital infrastructure. Webuild is well positioned to address them all. Let me add some color by region. In Italy, our own market demand remains strong, supported by national and new transport programs and growing investment in hospitals and sport facilities. Across the rest of Europe, infrastructure renewal, rail modernization, and higher defense spending are driving demand. In North America, large public programs and PPPs are funding transport and water. Australia offers strong opportunities in the energy transition and transport, while Saudi Arabia continue to build out an integrated urban system, connectivity, and social infrastructure. Beyond these core markets, we monitor other geographies where our local experience can deliver the right risk-return balance. Our commercial pipeline stands at over EUR 108 billion.
Of this amount, we have EUR 19.6 billion of tenders already submitted and awaiting an outcome. While a further EUR 14.2 billion relate tenders we are submitting. Importantly, the pipeline includes a number of major contracts where we are already strongly positioned to win. There are projects where Webuild is already well-positioned for the award. Other, where the tender has already been won and the project is progressing through the design phase. This contract will be included in the backlog once the design activities are completed. Lastly, on slide 16, you will find our 2026 guidance. We expect revenues of more than EUR 13.6 billion, in line with the record level obtained in 2025. EBITDA is expected at more than EUR 1.2 billion and a net cash position at more than EUR 300 million. Let me put this outlook in perspective.
Early this year, around EUR 3.8 billion of backlog was canceled, yet our performance and our guidance remains strong. That is the real message. The scale we have reached and the diversification of our backlog allow us to absorb even extraordinary events without changing course. Our outlook is not based on optimistic scenarios of future upside, but on a solid foundation of existing backlog, visible commercial opportunities, and operational initiatives that are already underway. We have built something solid and hard to replicate. Now our focus is clear: turning that scale into additional value with the same discipline that brought us here. We are finalizing our 2026-2029 industrial plan, which we will present to the financial community at the end of September. It will pursue the priority of a stable and predictable cash generation, also through vertical integration, technological innovation, and profitable growth.
In line with the direction of that plan, yesterday we announced to launch a voluntary tender offer for all the ordinary share of Trevi. Let me be clear. Any impact from this offer are excluded from our guidance for the full year 2026. Let's now look at the strategic rationale of the offer on Trevi. Slide 18. Trevi is one of the leading global specialists in underground engineering and special foundation, with a unique vertically integrated business model combining engineering services and equipment manufacturing through Soilmec. This model has been built over more than 60 years and has established Trevi as one of the few truly global operators in the sector. The industrial logic of this transaction is straightforward. Special foundation and underground engineering are critical activities in nearly every major infrastructure project and directly influence schedule, cost, and delivery risk. Today, these services are outsourced by Webuild.
By bringing Trevi's capability inside the group, we would acquire competencies in a highly specialized and a strategically important segment of the construction value chain. It would also secure greater control over execution in terms of process, quality, and delivery risk across the group's order backlog. For Trevi, this EUR 54 billion of backlog is not an abstract number, it's immediate ready work. The acquisition would allow us also to be more competitive in tenders involving complex geotechnical challenges. It would enable us to offer clients a more integrated end-to-end solution, improving pricing capability. On the financial side, the cash offer is already funded. The initial financial debt linked to the acquisition is around EUR 500 million, approximately EUR 300 million related to the equity investment at Webuild level, and around EUR 200 million at Trevi level, following the financial restructuring completed in the first half of 2026.
Trevi's standalone business plan already envisages the full repayment of its debt over the plan period to 2029. At the same time, the industrial synergies that are expected to generate around EUR 200 million of cash in plan horizon. This, together with additional synergies to be quantified and Webuild standalone capacity to generate cash, will give ample coverage to reduce the leverage within plan.
Let's move on slide 19. Bringing Trevi into the Webuild group will generate significant industrial and commercial synergies on both the revenue and the cost side. Through Trevi, Webuild will internalize high value added foundation and ground engineering activities that today are largely outsourced to third parties, while Trevi gains direct access to the group global leading platform, accelerating its own standalone plan. Overall, we have identified synergies of approximately EUR 80 million to EUR 90 million of additional EBITDA per year on a run rate basis.
This estimate is highly visible. More than EUR 60 million of it is tied to work we have already in hand through our current backlog and our short-term pipeline. In practice, these are plug and play. The rest is a deliberately prudent estimates of cost synergies. Around EUR 10 million comes from joint procurement, equipment and fleet optimization, and logistics, plus a further EUR 20 million from leveraging shared service and standardization of central processes. Together with Trevi's own EBITDA, the transaction would bring to Webuild an incremental EBITDA contribution of around EUR 150 million to EUR 170 million and would be accretive to Group's EBITDA margin. Importantly, the estimate does not include further expected benefit, which represent additional value creation potential. These are mainly financial and funding synergies.
Lower cost of debt and improved access to capital markets and bond financing, thanks to Webuild credit standing. The strengthening of risk management, compliance, and quality health and safety controls through alignment with the Group standards. On slide 20, we show how this transaction creates value also for all Trevi stakeholders. For Trevi and its people, joining Webuild opens a new growth path. The company would gain access to a global platform operating in around 50 countries with a backlog of EUR 54 billion. More than 85,000 people, and decades of experience in delivering some of the world's most complex infrastructure projects. Trevi would plug directly into Webuild project pipeline, gaining volume from day one without the commercial cost of winning it. Trevi just completed its financial turnaround, it has a credible growth plan of its own. With Webuild, that path would accelerate.
The company would leverage Webuild's international footprint to access new geographies. For example, scaling up in markets such as Australia, where the Group has a major industrial presence, and to take part in larger, more complex projects. Let me be clear on one point. We do not intend to change Trevi's identity. We intend to protect it and build on it. Trevi would remain an Italian center of excellence with its headquarters, its people, and its knowhow firmly rooted in Italy, continuing to serve both third-party clients in Italy and internationally, and Webuild projects while benefiting from stronger risk management, compliance, governance, and health and safety standards in line with Webuild's plan. For Trevi shareholders, our offer means certainty and a meaningful premium.
The consideration is entirely in cash, EUR 4.5 per share, representing a 29.8% premium to Trevi's the closing share price on 26 June 2026, delivering immediate certain value and full liquidity, unlike the ICOP offer, whose shares are not yet listed on a regulated market. Certainty of value is the key differentiator of our proposal. Let me finish on slide 21. The transaction is structured as a voluntary all cash tender offer for 100% of Trevi's share capital, aimed at acquiring control, delisting the company, and fully integrating its capability into the Group. The proposed minimum acceptance threshold is 66.7%, significantly lower than the 90% threshold contemplated by the ICOP offer. In economic terms, we are offering EUR 4.5 per share, valuing Trevi at approximately EUR 295 million of equity, a premium of 29.8% over Trevi's undisturbed share price, and a 14.4% over the value implied by the ICOP offer.
Unlike the ICOP proposal, our offer is not conditional on Trevi's lending bank waiving change of control rights. It is subject only to customary conditions, antitrust clearance, Golden Power clearances, and a material adverse event condition. As I said, it is based entirely on cash rather than shares, whose final value depends on future market performance and liquidity. Put simply, ours is a more compelling offer to Trevi shareholders. Certain cash instead of variable paper, higher value, a lower acceptance threshold, and a fewer condition. We expect to file the offer document after the summer, run the offer period in autumn, and complete the transaction by year-end. We take this step, and the one that we follow in our plan, confident in our ability to meet the challenges ahead in a market that increasingly demand a more integrated approach. Thank you for your attention.
We are now ready for the Q&A session. To keep the discussion focused and efficient, we would encourage questions on strategy and the main initiatives supporting the group current and future financial performance. For any follow-up question on figures, table, or specific technical details from the presentation, the investor relation team will, of course, be available after the call.
Thank you. This is the conference operator. If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key six on your telephone keypad. We will take a minute to gather questions.
Okay. We are ready. We see the first question coming from Mr. Baldelli. Is it right?
The first question comes from the line of Michele Baldelli from BNP Paribas. Please unmute your mic and go ahead.
Good morning to everybody. I hope you can hear me well. I have a question on the Trevi acquisition. If you can share at this current moment some details about the cost synergies or the top-line synergies, just to give a little bit more color on these targets that you gave on the EBITDA, how much is cost, how much is revenues, and so on. The second question relates to the order intake. Basically, just an update on the outlook for the coming few months until the end of the year.
If you can provide a sort of color on what could be the book-to-bill expected at the end of the year, or what could be the large contracts still ahead that could be grabbed until December. Lastly, the third question relates to the items below EBIT. You are referring to some write-downs of receivables and also interest from customers on the financial expenses. Can you elaborate how much of the total financial expenses was driven by these kind of one-offs, please? Thank you.
Bald elli, I think that all of these questions were already answered by the presentation. Probably you arrived later. Let's say that starting from Trevi synergies that are with us, we just said that we have synergies that are firstly related to our portfolio, the one that is, let's say, linked to the around EUR 60 million of these synergies comes from the portfolio that we can share immediately with Trevi. It is written on the slide. The rest is deliberately prudent estimates of cost synergies. Around EUR 10 million comes from the joint procurement equipment, fleet optimization, and logistics, plus a further EUR 20 million from leveraging shared services and standardization of central processes.
This is around EUR 90 million, but that we say from EUR 70-EUR 90 million, so that's it. It is a prudent assumption of it. Of course, we didn't take into consideration what can happen to our portfolio in terms of course, of products that significantly demand the role of a player like Trevi for us. I think this transaction on Trevi, the synergies that we are seeing that bring us an accretive of EUR 150 million-EUR 170 million to the group, EBITDA is very prudent assumption. This is for Trevi.
Regarding the impact that you mentioned under the EBIT, we already mentioned it, but at the level of the net profit that has been impacted by around EUR 190 million of one-off items, we already mentioned that are not monetary. The first part, EUR 90 million, is within financial expenses. Most of this is a deliberate trade-off in favor of cash. By waiving interest on some receivables under settlement agreements, we accelerated the collection. We cashed in the money that we expected, renouncing to something. We added the new work to our backlog.
You can imagine that we can refer, for instance, to the Metro C project, and we reduced significantly our claim exposure. The remaining part here is a one-off write-down of certain financial receivables. The second part, around EUR 100 million, is in losses on investments, which reflect the economic effects related to projects that are completed or nearing completion in North America and Australia. Decisive actions have been taken to contain the risk.
I will go there to do it. What order intake do you expect to sign in 2026? We have already a very sound pipeline, we said during the presentation, of tender that already been submitted, in which we are the best offer or the sole offer. This already also happened. We already secured EUR 7.7 billion of new orders since the beginning of the year. We entered the second half with a very solid high-quality backlog of EUR 47 billion. We're very well positioned on several additional opportunities, while other awarded projects are progressing through the design phase and will be added at the backlog once the relevant formalities are completed. As a result, we remain confident that book-to-bill above one is achievable.
Thank you very much.
The next question is from Matteo Bonizzoni of Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning. I have two questions. The first one relates to the strong EBITDA margin, which you have posted, which is above 10%, which is above, let's say, the usual range, which in the past you were flagging sort of 8%, 9%. I would like to know what is the mid-term sustainability of this 10% + EBITDA margin? Also, if you can explain a little bit more the reason and the origin, let's say, of this very high margin. The second question relates to the offer on Trevi and the rationale. Just to elaborate with you, Trevi is currently an independent special foundation player, as is Keller or Bauer. We have a case of Soletanche Bachy, which is below Vinci, but in general, I would say that in the industry, most players are independent.
I can understand that they will gain more opportunity with you, but I wonder if they will lose maybe commercial opportunities outside the Webuild Group, because from now on, they will see as a captive player of Webuild. What are your considerations about that? I would like to know the funding. If you look at the enterprise value of the deal, it is in the region of EUR 0.4 billion or EUR 0.3 billion, slightly below equity value, and then Trevi has slightly below EUR 100 million of net debt. Overall, close to EUR 0.4 billion, which for you in terms of ratio on the EBITDA is a 0.3, not much, but still, I would say a mid-size move. What are the options which you are considering for the funding of this deal? Thanks.
Let's start with the question on Trevi. It's not the only case of a player of special foundation that is owned by a group or that works for the rest of the market. There is Vinci, there is ACS that also in Australia is a specialist. There are other examples of it, very successful, for the group they work for and for the market. We think that this model is something that gives exactly to Trevi a good benefit to enjoy our platform, which is much larger, of course, of the one they have alone. The fact that they can benefit from our project pipeline, which is quite large.
We are one of the largest operators in the world for infrastructure, where, of course, the special foundation market is one of the key factors for success, for competing, for advantages, in terms of synergies that can be had together. I think that the strategy on Trevi is exactly what we need now. I would say that also that this idea of investing in the competence line, that we will explain further into the business plan presentation, it is, of course, something that is very important for us, not only in the sector of special foundation, but also in the other segment that are important to our clients and are important to the project we work with.
We have a very important internal market, internal demand for these specialties that we now have to outsource because we don't have the resources internally. We will develop this capability internally, not only as an investment on the market or purchasing company, but also creating these specialties internally and dedicating part of our specialized companies to master this competence line. This you will find in more details, of course, in September. This is it for Trevi. For the other question, Massimo, what was it?
Marginalities. How can we sustain-
Also the funding, Massimo. Funding for Trevi overall.
The funding right now is, of course, debt with a very, let me say, reasonable cost in line with the average cost that we have on the gross debt. At the end, we expect to finance the acquisition through a capital market source. Is it okay?
Bond? Bond?
Bond, right. Bond.
Equity or Okay. Thank you.
B ond. Not convertible, not equity bond. No.
J ust to know. Okay. Clear.
For sure.
Not because I received a question from some investor. I'm asking because I was receiving this morning.
No, for sure.
From investor if it's going to be.
It will depend, as Pietro mentioned before, from, of course, we cannot anticipate which will be the total amount of Trevi shares that we can receive from the actual shareholders. Then we can have also to view from inside the opportunity to reduce, to optimize the total leverage of Trevi and the entire group, including Trevi.
Thanks.
The next question is from Enrico Coco. Please go ahead.
Good morning. My question is on the guidance. The guidance on EBITDA looks really conservative, because it implies an EBITDA in the second half below EUR 530 million. You did above EUR 670 million in the first half. Usually, in the second half, you have higher volumes, also the EBITDA is higher compared to the first half. It seems to me that I'm missing around EUR 100 million on EBITDA on the guidance side. I would like to understand if there are particular reasons why you are so conservative on the EBITDA. Thank you.
Thank you. The first thing that you have to take into account that when we say EUR 1.2 billion of EBITDA at the end of the year is not negligible, if you see as a marginality. The fact that the second half is less than what is in the first half depends on the job mix, which is normal, related to seasonality and the project that are done by the company and the schedule of this project. This is the thing. The strong 10.1% EBITDA margin achieved in the first half reflects, as I said, a particularly favorable mix, including contribution for projects with higher profitable profiles.
We continue to execute the initiative embedded in our strategy, aim at increasing profitability, including greater selectivity in new order intake, tighter project execution control, and continued focus on cost optimization. As a result, we still expect full year 2026 profitability to improve compared to full year 2025, confirming the structural progress achieved by the group in recent year. It's okay for you? You need further details?
It's okay. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
The next question is from Alessandro Tortora of Mediobanca. Please go ahead.
T hanks. Good morning, everybody. I have three question, okay? The first one is, you mentioned before, I know the impact and the recent cancellation you had on Saudi Arabia contracts. Can you share a little bit with us what is your medium-term view there? Because you shared that there is a healthy pipeline in the region. How do you see, for Webuild, how do you see your commercial pipeline maybe moving to some other areas, with the focus, for instance on new sectors like data center, also for Saudi Arabia. Just understand how do you see now the project mix evolving in Saudi Arabia compared to the past? This is the first question. Thanks.
Let's go to the first question. Saudi Arabia is not NEOM, the market is quite large in Saudi Arabia. I think that the first thing that we have to say that the fact that a decision from the government to cancel a very large investment, it do not transform Saudi Arabia into a bad market. We are working in Saudi Arabia for more than 60 years. We have enjoyed a very solid pipeline of important project. We had just finished the metro of Riyadh, the Line 3. We got, as a new contract, the Line 2, and we expect good news on the further Line 7, probably that we will receive some news on it in the next coming days. I think that the market in Saudi Arabia remains, for us, very important.
It's a very large investor, of course we are sorry that they did change their ideas on the project we were very well executing, I have to say. It's a pity, we understand that the project was not only us. Of course, there were an enormous investment which was related to that, and probably the magnitude of that investment, in the present situation in the Gulf, that means a very strategic, tourist, attractive, new, very large project, probably time to market is not exactly the right moment to do it.
We understand the rationale that was behind this decision. Now, there are safer area, of course, of Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia, as you know, has also enjoyed a very good, politic close understanding with U.S., working together to defend the area. I think that it will remain a very central part of the world for investment and for us as a competent executive infrastructure builder to serve the nation for their needs.
T hanks. The second question is, if I understood well, you mentioned this year, roughly EUR 700 million CapEx, okay, for you to support, let's say, the ongoing backlog execution. Should we see this level of CapEx as a sort of peak or I'm also, let's say, linking this to your comment on the focus on cash conversion, okay, increasing focus on cash conversion in the coming years. Should we think about this EUR 700 million as a kind of No?
I agree, Alessandro. You can see it as a peak.
Let's say, going forward, we should see, let's say, some kind of normalized CapEx on sales rate lower. Okay. Thanks.
As you know, we expected-
If you want to elaborate a little bit more. Thanks.
As you know, we expected something more as a CapEx for the first half. We achieved a level lower, but keeping the production. It depends also from the business mix. This can occur also in the second half. This is why I immediately answer that you can consider as a peak. I have to add that also link it to the cancellation of the Connector and t he NEOM. There were, of course, some investment related to that that has been canceled. This is let's say, an upside on that part.
T hanks. The last question is, you mentioned before that you clearly know Australia is a really big market, second market for you, immediately after Italy. Are you happy with the current kind of organization you have? You own 100% of this business. Do you see at a certain point, for instance, the possibility, I don't know, to crystallize the asset value, let's say, for the Australian business?
By putting the company in the stock exchange there? What do you think?
I'm just asking because, today, it's pretty big, the business there. Just to understand if you're happy.
Of course, we want to increase the size because, of course, Australia is a very large continent, apart from the fact there are few people, but it's a very large continent that is investing enormously into the sustainable energy. Oceania, not only Australia, also, for instance, New Zealand, Tasmania, are important part of this design of expansion. There is also an enormous defense plan in which we are participating.
Transmission line for Clough and other specialized activities in the defense and also in the energy transmission are very well positioned. We are very well positioned. We think that we can still grow a lot in Australia. We have now 10,000 people working for us in Australia, so it's quite a large company. We are one of the major company there working, so very happy about that. It's our largest market after Italy. Most probably, it will even grow in the very next future. This is important.
Okay.
Thank you, Alessandro. Probably we have the last question coming from Emanuele Gallazzi.
The next question comes from the line, Emanuele Gallazzi of Equita. Please go ahead and ask your question.
Hope you can hear me. Good morning, everybody. I have basically two follow-ups on the Trevi deal and then one on your business. On Trevi, just try to understand if you can, let's say, provide a little bit more color on the timeline for the synergies. When do you expect to be at regime? You mentioned the EUR 60 million of synergy coming from the plug of Trevi on your current project. Can you quantify the weight of the foundation or underground business within the Webuild total revenues, and how much of that work is currently carried out by Trevi versus third parties?
If you can, just elaborate a little bit more on the geographical footprint, because Trevi has a quite significant exposure to emerging market. Roughly 60% of the revenues are coming from Middle East, APAC, Africa, and South America, while clearly your focus in the last years has been on lower risk geographies. On your business, looking at the U.S. market, clearly a strong commercial acceleration in the first half. Can you comment a little bit more on the outlook there and, let's say, the operating performance of Lane? Thank you.
About Trevi, to give an idea, we have now around EUR 1.5 billion into the business plan of product, let's say, of demand or what are the services of Trevi that can be given. The synergies will start from the 2027. Of course, this is it. The expected time, as we said, is EUR 80 million to EUR 90 million of additional EBITDA. Of course, we start when we can physically-
We will have it.
We will have it. This is it.
Just to understand, you expect it, this EUR 80 million-EUR 90 million to be reached in, I don't know, 2029, 2030?
No
Much faster way.
This is yearly from 2027.
Right.
Okay.
That concludes our Q&A session. I will now hand back to our speakers.
No, sorry. There is another question.
There is another question, sorry.
Regarding the U.S. outlook on Lane is favorable, both because we already achieved the turnaround in 2025. As you mentioned before, we got a very good and excellent commercial performance, and the market is very interesting. It's mainly a single-state market, and where Lane is very established, and established since a long time, they are getting very profitable new job, and we have a very good relationship with the client. We expect something very good coming from U.S.. Let me mention also the Canada market, where we are doing a lot of commercial activity. We are running very important project, and the pipeline could be very interesting for also the new business plan. It's okay, Emanuele?
Emanuele is now hanging up, but I think he could hear your question.
Okay.
I think that for the Q&A is okay now, and every other question you may have, you may simply ask to the investor relation, they will be happy to answer to all other questions. Thank you very much, and we wish for you an happy day.
Happy summer, and have a good day.
Happy summer too, of course.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.