Riva Group

Gruppo Riva

Type	Private
Industry	Steel
Founded	1954
Founder	Adriano and Emilio Riva
Headquarters	Milan, Italy
Key people	Emilio Riva , Chairman Fabio Riva, CEO
Products	Hot rolled flat steel Bars Iron rod Slabs
Revenue	€ 11.261 billion (2008)
Operating income	€ 0.738 billion (2008)
Net income	€ 0.503 billion (2008)
Total equity	€ 4.502 billion (2008)
Number of employees	24,151 (2008)
Website	www.rivagroup.com
Footnotes / references

Gruppo Riva is an Italian steel producer. After the ArcelorMittal merger and the takeover of Corus by Tata Steel, the group is currently the world’s eighteenth and Europe's third largest steel producer. Riva Group (consisting of two companies, Riva Acciaio and Ilva) is private-owned and the whole shareholders' equity is held by the Riva family, through the financial institution "Riva FIRE" (which stands for "Finanziaria Industriale Riva Emilio").

Riva Acciaio was founded in 1954 in Milan by Adriano and Emilio Riva as an iron scrap trading business. In 1957 the first Riva Acciaio mini-mill was built in Caronno Pertusella near Varese. A few years later, this plant became the first steelworks in Italy to use continuous casting, in partnership with steel plant engineer Danieli. In the 1960s and 1970s Riva expanded by means of the acquisition of several small steel producers in Northern Italy and Spain (Siderurgica Sevillana). Starting from the 80s, Riva took part in the privatization process of the ailing European steel industry by making further acquisitions in the main European countries such as Italy (the previously state-owned steelworks Acciaierie di Cornigliano in Genoa), Belgium (Charleroi-Marcinelle plant) and France (Alpa plant in Gargenville). In 1992 it acquired directly from the German Treuhandanstalt two important plants (Brandenburger Elektrostahlwerke and Henningsdorfer Elektrostahlwerke) in the former German Democratic Republic. In 1995 Riva Acciaio purchased ILVA from the Italian government, becoming one of the main European steel producers.

Due to the important role played in the privatization of the European steel industry, Emilio Riva was awarded the Grand Cross of Merit by the King of Belgium (2000), the Grand Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (2002) and the French Legion of Honour (2005). Étienne Davignon, former European Commissioner and Vice-president of the European Commission, has defined Emilio Riva as “prophet of this dynamic and optimistic vision of private enterprise”, affirming that “steelmaking is not an industry like the others, and the Riva group is not an industrial group like the others”.