The important events that have characterised the governance of the Group during the current year will further strengthen the strategic positioning and competitive strength of the Group in its target markets in the medium term, in full consistency with the strategic guidelines and objectives contained in the Business Plan 2013 - 2016 which Impregilo and its parent company Salini jointly approved in June for the purposes of the merger by incorporation of Salini S.p.A. in Impregilo S.p.A. (the "Merger"), approved by the Extraordinary Shareholders' Meetings of both companies on 12 September 2013.
The Merger became fully effective on 1 January 2014, from which date the parent company resulting from the merger changed its name to Salini Impregilo S.p.A. In this context, therefore, the operational and corporate structures of the two newly unified companies will be affected by the progressive organisational integration that will involve them for a significant part of 2014.
At the end of 2013, the excellent order backlog resulting from the aggregation of the two groups involved in the merger, in terms of both quantity and quality, and the financial structure that remains balanced, continue to be important factors for growth and development which support the new group in its view that the expected results for subsequent periods of the current year will develop according to the guidelines recently released to the market.
It should be remembered that the Group is currently in a complex operating and legal situation, in the context of the criminal and civil proceedings relating to the Campania USW Projects. Due to the very complicated nature of the proceedings, which involve state, regional, and provincial institutions and the municipal authorities of Campania, and the complexity of the related court procedures, the Group cannot rule out that events which are at present unforeseeable could arise in the future and require current valuations to be revised.