Carena Impresa di Costruzioni S.p.a.

The company was established as "Antonio Carena and Sons" in 1902, but its history actually dates back to more than thirty years before, in 1866, when the Genoese businessman Giuseppe Carena starts the construction of the Bellavista Lighthouse in Sardinia.
Giuseppe Carena realised other remarkable works, such as the La Spezia underwater breakwater. He started very soon to pass the "secrets of the building art" to his three sons, Giovanni, Carlo and Antonio, who, at the turn of the century, start their own businesses. In 1902, the youngest brother, Antonio, starts the "Antonio Carena", which subsequently became "Antonio Carena and Sons", from which the present-day "Carena S.p.A." is directly descended.
In 1930, Francesco Perri joined the company as an employee and he starts a long and profitable co-operation with the Carena, which shall lead the engineer to become a co-owner partner in the company.
After World War II, the company starts to increasingly expand its activities nationwide: realising residential buildings and also, chiefly, hospitals, public offices, industrial complexes, infrastructures, sports facilities, which little by little increase the presence of the company in the sector of public works, which currently represents its main business.
In 1964 engineer Perri was elected President of the National Builders Association (ANCE - Associazione Nazionale Costruttori Edili) and he was subsequently confirmed for the following 25 years. Nobody ever represented the Association for such a long time.
In December 1990 Antonio Carena, the grandson of the founder and President of the company, as well as the owner of 41% of the shares, leaves his office and sells off his shares to the other shareholders, in proportion to the shares they already owned.
Currently, the Perri family controls 70% of the share capital, while the remaining 30% is still owned by Giuseppina Carena, the heiress of the company founders.