Italian construction company Atlantia SpA said it would investigate claims that some of its employees falsified safety reports of two road bridges in Italy.
According to a Sept. 13 report by the Financial Times, Italian authorities have arrested employees at Autostrade per l'Italia SpA and infrastructure company SPEA Engineering, both belonging to Atlantia, for allegedly falsifying safety reports for two viaducts. The company identified them as the Pecetti and Paolillo road bridges. The FT said one was located in northwestern Italy and the other in the south, but didn't state the towns.
Three people were put under house arrest, and six others have been banned from working, according to the FT.
Autostrade operated the Morandi motorway bridge in Genoa, Italy, which collapsed during heavy rain in August 2018, killing 43 people. The FT report added that some of the employees under investigation were involved with the maintenance of the Morandi bridge.
Atlantia's audit will be conducted by a "leading international company, aimed of ascertaining whether internal procedures were followed correctly by the companies and the people involved," the company said in a statement, adding that it had called on the boards of both Autostrade and SPEA Engineering "to meet urgently in order to take any necessary decisions."
Atlantia plans to share its findings with relevant authorities.
S&P Global Ratings, a separately managed division of S&P Global, in July placed Atlantia's BBB issuer credit rating on CreditWatch with negative implications, citing a heightened risk arising from subsidiary Autostrade per l'Italia SpA potentially losing toll road concessions from the government.
The Italian Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport had said in a legal report that it may unilaterally revoke Autostrade's motorway concession without any compensation, following the collapse of the bridge in Genoa. S&P Global Ratings said such a scenario may not necessarily play out, and Autostrade's concession could instead be renegotiated to much less favorable terms for the toll road operator.
