Transfield Holdings is a privately-owned investment company with extensive experience in industrial services, infrastructure and renewable energy.
History
Transfield Holdings's origins can be traced to 1956 when an Italian-born immigrant electrical engineer, Franco Belgiorno-Nettis, who was joined soon after by Carlo Salteri, a former colleague from Electric Power Transmission, an offshoot of Milan based Societa' Anonima Elettrificazione, which was constructing powerlines. The logo, designed by Belgiorno-Nettis, reflected its electricity industry origins; it was intended to represent a high-voltage transmission tower, with an accompanying red electrical spark. Transfield's first contract was for the fabrication and installation of a soaking pit and slab mill for Australian Iron & Steel at Port Kembla. In May 1957, sixteen hectares of land was purchased in the Western Sydney suburb of Seven Hills. In 1958 Transfield won its first major contract, to build of the powerline from Magill to Port Augusta in South Australia. Another early project, was a chairlift at Thredbo, the longest in the world at the time. In 1965, subsidiary Transavia Corporation commenced producing the Transavia PL-12 Airtruk agricultural aircraft. Together Belgiorno-Nettis and Saltieri built Transfield into one of Australia's most successful companies focused on major engineering projects such as bridges, tunnels, dams, hydroelectric and coal power stations, oil rigs, concert halls, sugar mills and power lines. Included in Transfield's list of achievements are the construction of the Gateway Bridge in Brisbane and the Sydney Harbour Tunnel. By the early 1980s, Transfield had in excess of 3,000 employees and an annual turnover of $350 million. Within five years it grew to be the biggest engineering firm in southeast Asia. When visiting Australia in 1986 Pope John Paul II toured the Transfield factory located at Seven Hills. Transfield established a naval shipbuilding capability in Australia with the acquisition of Williamstown Dockyard in Melbourne in 1989. In the early 1990s, it bullt two Oliver Hazard Perry class frigates for the Royal Australian Navy. In 1989, Belgiorno-Nettis and Salteri stood down as joint managing directors in favour of their eldest sons, Marco Belgiorno-Zegna and Paul Salteri. After a dispute between Belgiorno-Nettis and Salteri in 1995, the business was split, with the Belgiorno-Nettis family taking the construction and infrastructure side of the business, and the Salteris the defence and shipbuilding work under the name Tenix. In May 2001, the operations and maintenance division was spun-off and listed on the Australian Securities Exchange as Transfield Services with Transfield Holdings having a 45% shareholding. In December 2002, the construction business was sold to John Holland. In September 2014, Transfield Holdings sold its remaining shareholding in Transfield Services. In 2015, Transfield Holdings transformed from a private equity business into an investment holding company, managed by the respective family offices of Guido and Luca Belgiorno-Nettis.
