Rail Baltica’s Neris bridge contractor was already insolvent

A rendering of the Neris viaduct — the Italian contractor has been under formal insolvency proceedings since February while work on the structure continued. Rendering: Rail Baltica.

CROSS-BORDER: Rizzani de Eccher, the Italian contractor building Rail Baltica's longest bridge, has been under formal court-supervised insolvency proceedings since February — with Webuild, Italy's largest construction group, among fifteen investors assessing a potential acquisition.

Rizzani de Eccher filed for a court-supervised insolvency procedure (concordato preventivo) at the Trieste tribunal on 5 February 2026. The court approved the application and appointed three judicial commissioners. The financial crisis dates to June 2023, when the company first entered formal restructuring negotiations with its bank creditors — the same year LTG Infra began monitoring the contractor’s financial position.

Work on the Neris viaduct, the longest railway bridge in the Baltic states, has continued through three years of escalating financial distress and a formal insolvency filing earlier this year.

A collapse visible across Europe

The scale of the crisis extends well beyond Lithuania. In Italy, construction on a railway link to Venice Marco Polo airport has been halted since December 2025. Work on the Cattinara hospital in Trieste stopped in August 2025. A PNRR-funded railway doubling between Palermo and Catania is running eighteen months behind schedule. Italy’s national rail manager RFI has been paying subcontractors directly on some sites to keep work moving.

The group’s total liabilities amount to EUR 1bn across 2,600 commercial creditors. In December 2024, a restructuring fund, Sagitta Sgr, acquired a 76% stake via its UTP Restructuring Corporate vehicle, injecting EUR 25m to sustain operations while a buyer was sought. When the Trieste court rejected a further extension of creditor protection in December 2025, the company filed for concordato preventivo weeks later.

Webuild in due diligence

Webuild — Italy’s largest construction group, with EUR 12bn in revenues and an order book of EUR 59bn — has been conducting due diligence on Rizzani de Eccher since January.

The company is primarily interested in the Italian railway contracts, though broader assets are under consideration. A total of 15 investors have accessed confidential documentation, with 37 expressions of interest, confidentiality agreements and proposals received by 19 June.

A court hearing is scheduled for 10 July to determine whether the creditor protection framework will be confirmed, modified or revoked. The outcome will shape whether Rizzani de Eccher continues as a going concern or moves toward liquidation.

The concordato preventivo procedure is listed publicly on Rizzani de Eccher’s own website as Unified Insolvency Proceeding No. 19-1/2026, formerly No. 6-1/2026, of the Trieste tribunal.

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