Transfield Holdings

Transfield Pty. Ltd. is a company founded in 1956 by an Italian-born immigrant electrical engineer, Franco Belgiorno-Nettis, who was joined soon after by a former colleague from EPT (Electric Power Transmission, an offshoot of Milan-based Societa' Anonima Elettrificazione, which was constructing powerlines), Carlo Salteri. The Company's logo, designed by Belgiorno-Nettis, reflects its electricity industry origins; it is intended to represent a high-voltage transmission tower, with an accompanying red electrical spark.

Together Saltieri and Belgiorno-Nettis built Transfield into one of Australia's most successful companies focused on major engineering projects, such as bridges, tunnels, dams, hydro-electric and coal power stations, oil rigs, concert halls, sugar mills and power lines. Included in their 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 A$350 million; and within five years grew to be the biggest engineering firm in south-east Asia. The Company acquired the Williamstown Dockyard in Melbourne and, in 1989 after winning a A$6 billion contract to build ten ANZAC class frigates for the Australian and New Zealand governments, the largest defence contract in Australia at the time. When visiting Australia in 1986 Pope John Paul II toured the Transfield factory located at Seven Hills.

The Company established a naval shipbuilding capability in Australia first known as AMECON, then as Transfield Defence Systems, with the successful construction of two FFG7 - Oliver Hazard Perry class frigates for the Royal Australian Navy. It was later awarded the Anzac Ship Project contract, for 10 Anzac class frigates, eight for the Royal Australian Navy and two for the Royal New Zealand Navy.

In 1989, Salteri and Belgiorno-Nettis stood down as joint managing directors of Transfield Holdings (as the company was then named) in favour of their eldest sons, Paul Salteri and Marco Belgiorno-Zegna. However, in a dispute between Salteri and Belgiorno-Nettis in 1995, the differences between the two families became irreconcillable and Transfield, then valued at A$733.2 million was split in two. The Belgiorno-Nettis family kept the name Transfield, having earlier established Transfield Holdings’ Operations and Maintenance division in 1993 at Mobil Altona in Victoria.