Maccaferri acquires Iterchimica and Surface Tech, creating a new vertical for lower-carbon, climate resilient infrastructure
Officine Maccaferri S.p.A. is pleased to announce that has acquired Iterchimica S.p.A. and Surface Tech LLC, creating a new High-Performance Materials vertical within the Group. Completion of the Iterchimica S.p.A. transaction is subject to customary regulatory and anti-trust approvals.
Civil infrastructure accounts for c. 5-8% of global CO₂ emissions. Roads and other infrastructure require continuous maintenance, repair, and replacement, creating a highly material-intensive cycle reliant on virgin, fossil fuel-derived inputs, and significant energy consumption during installation. Technological advances in asphalt and asphalt additives can address this pressing environmental challenge by significantly reducing the need for new virgin bitumen, a petroleum-derived material, and the associated CO₂ emissions. More durable asphalts need less frequent maintenance and renewal, while recycled asphalt directly replaces the need for new fossil-based material. Together, they can reduce virgin material consumption by up to c. 93–99%.
Iterchimica, a developer of asphalt additives, improves the sustainability of asphalt by increasing its durability by more than 75%. Its additives and technologies also increase the share of recycled asphalt to up to 100%, significantly reducing demand for virgin material. Its flagship Gipave® solution has been proven to reduce CO₂ emissions by c. 40% compared to conventional methods.
Surface Tech complements these solutions by tackling the material intensity of maintenance. Its aramid fibre reinforcement reduces cracking by 30–50%, materially extending pavement life and reducing the materials consumed in repairing and replacing damaged roads.
These acquisitions mark an important milestone in Maccaferri’s transformation to a global environmental engineering platform. Through its buy-and-build strategy, the Group combines specialist businesses with its engineering expertise and international reach to build a leader in durable, resource-efficient and climate-resilient infrastructure.
The High-Performance Materials vertical is the first step in extending this model beyond Maccaferri’s traditional product categories. It combines Maccaferri’s geosynthetics and engineering solutions, Iterchimica’s additives, and Surface Tech’s aramid fibre reinforcement into an integrated offering spanning every layer of the road, from subgrade to surface, and the full lifecycle, from construction to maintenance and regeneration. This allows the Group to engineer pavement as a complete system rather than supply individual products.
The two businesses also have highly complementary geographic footprints. Iterchimica, founded in 1967 and headquartered in Bergamo, Italy, operates predominantly in Europe. Surface Tech, founded in 2013 and headquartered in San Diego, US, focuses on the North American market. Maccaferri’s operations across five continents and customer presence in more than 130 countries give each business faster access to new markets and projects, in line with the Group’s wider internationalisation strategy, including its planned US manufacturing expansion.
As part of the transaction, both entrepreneurs will reinvest alongside Maccaferri, becoming shareholders of the Group, while continuing to play leading roles in their respective businesses. This ensures strong continuity and alignment as Iterchimica and Surface Tech enter their next phase of growth as part of Maccaferri.
Andrea Venturini, Partner at Ambienta, commented: “These acquisitions are much more than an expansion of Maccaferri’s pavement offering. They demonstrate the model we are building with Maccaferri: identifying outstanding specialist businesses in sustainable infrastructure, bringing them together on a global engineering platform and accelerating their international growth. High-Performance Materials shows how this approach can be replicated in new verticals, steadily broadening the Group’s technology base and reinforcing its ambition to become the reference global player in sustainable and climate-resilient infrastructure.”
Stefano Susani, CEO of Officine Maccaferri, commented: “High-Performance Materials represents an important new chapter for Maccaferri. By combining our engineering and geosynthetics expertise with Iterchimica’s advanced asphalt chemistry and Surface Tech’s aramid reinforcement technologies, we can address pavement as an integrated system – from foundations to surface – and deliver better performance with a lower environmental footprint. This combination significantly expands the range of solutions we can offer customers across the infrastructure lifecycle and illustrates the role we want Maccaferri to play: bringing together differentiated technologies and engineering expertise to make infrastructure more sustainable, durable and resilient.”
Federica Giannattasio, CEO of Iterchimica, added: “For 60 years, Iterchimica has pursued a clear ambition: to make roads more durable, sustainable and technologically advanced through continuous innovation in materials and processes. Me, my brother Alessandro and my sister Mariella, we are excited to combine our expertise while continuing to invest in the innovation and technical excellence that have always defined us. Joining Maccaferri takes that ambition to a new scale, with the Group’s engineering capabilities and global customer relationships bringing our solutions to new markets around the world."
Nick Slinde, CEO of Surface Tech, commented: “Surface Tech was founded on the simple belief that advanced materials can fundamentally improve how pavements are designed, built and maintained. Our aramid fibre technologies have proven their ability to enhance asphalt performance and extend pavement life. Joining Maccaferri opens an exciting next chapter of global scale for Surface Tech. Together with Maccaferri and Iterchimica, we can now offer fully integrated solutions across the pavement ecosystem, building on our technology leadership to accelerate the next generation of high-performance, more sustainable pavement solutions.”
