OPWAY

OPWAY was founded in January 2008 as the outcome of OPCA’s acquisition of SOPOL. This was the start of a new corporate venture whose strategy has been to consolidate a diversified business group with international credentials, seeking to optimize performance and return on shareholder capital. 

Following the acquisition of Sopol by OPCA at the start of 2007, the merging of these two companies took place in January 2008 under a new name – OPWAY.  This new business venture will be focussed on consolidating the project of this diverse and international business group, seeking to optimize not only its business performance, but also returning invested capital to the shareholders.

Since 1932, OPCA, Obras Públicas e Cimento Armado, S.A., was one of the most prestigious companies in the engineering, construction and public works sectors, establishing itself as a major player in the market. A position based on its passion for risk and innovation which can be seen through many prominent architectural and engineering works throughout the country, namely:

• Extension of the Funchal Airport
• Cristo Rei
• Project and construction of the Alameda-Chelas section of the Alameda/Expo underground line
• University of Coimbra Hospital
• Urbanization of the Parque Florestal de Monsanto
• Matosinhos District Hospital

In turn, Sopol - Sociedade Geral de Construções e Obras Públicas, S.A. founded in 1959, has also been a major contributor in the construction of prominent infrastructures essential for the development and progress of the country, asserting itself in the market for the quality, technical and rigorous work achieved.  Below are just some of Sopol’s main works:

• Carrapatelo Dam in the Douro
• Monte Novo Dam in Évora
• Pipeline extension from Castelo de Bode to Vila Franca de Xira
• Overpass for Northern Access to the bridge over the Tejo River (25 de Abril bridge) in Lisbon

Even though it only started its activity at the beginning of 2008 OPWAY has already embarked on a number of major projects in Portugal. Among them are:

Of these projects attention is particularly drawn to the contract for the Douro Interior Subconcession, both for the resources involved in the tendering procedure and related negotiations, and for its significance in the context of all the contracts won.

In the context of a a business plan based on constant growth, OPWAY aims to achieve a turnover above €600 million in 2009, and €1000 million in the short run, so as to expand its scale and be able to attract a different kind of shareholder to the project.   

In order to achieve these objectives, OPWAY is giving high importance into areas of added value, like motorway concessions, engineering and real estate.

The positioning of the Company in consortiums competing for the financing, construction and operating of all the major investments in construction anticipated up to 2017 mean that OPWAY Engenharia will be in the forefront of all the big structuring investments to be implemented in Portugal for some time to come.

PAVICENTRO

Pavicentro, a company making prefabricated concrete products, founded in 1971 and leader of the Pavicentro Group, is also part of OPWAY Engenharia. Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s it operated in the heavy prefabricated goods area and became market leader in the concrete sector in Portugal. The second of the group’s companies, Pontave, was established in the 1980s. Its objective was to market and assemble Pavicentro’s constructive systems. Paviseu and Pavilis followed, respectively supplying the Portuguese interior and Spanish region and the Greater Lisbon and Southern Portugal region.
In 1990 Pavicentro acquired a stake in Lameiro Empreiteiros - João Simões Marques Vieira e Filhos, Lda, which enabled it to bolster the strategy of cooperation between complementary firms within a group. At the same time Pavicentro embarked on a strategy of internationalisation and exported its first concrete monoblocks to Belgium and Spain. It also set up a new company, Pavijope, to produce Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete (GFRC).
In pursuit of its expansion strategy the Pavicentro Group began production abroad with the formal constitution of the group’s seventh company, Pavi do Brasil. This firm uses the group’s know-how to develop solutions in Brazil’s telecommunications, gas, electricity and construction sectors.
At the end of the first half of 2006 the entry of a new shareholder, OPCA - Obras Públicas e Cimento Armado, SA, today known as OPWAY, brought a new energy and dynamism to the organization, placing it in the front rank when it comes to major investment projects in Portugal (high speed train, new international airport, widening the A1 motorway and new access roads for Lisbon).