Project company
BBT SE: A European public limited company for the construction of a railway tunnel between Austria and Italy. At the request of the Republics of Austria and Italy and the European Union, BBT SE is planning and building the Brenner Base Tunnel.
The acronym SE stands for Societas Europaea. This is a transnational type of company provided for by European law. Since half of the shareholders are from Austria and half from Italy, this type of company is ideal.
In 1999 the Austrian and Italian Ministers of Transport established a European Economic Interest Grouping (EEIG), known as BBT EEIG. The company was set up to plan the Brenner Base Tunnel. On December 16th, 2004, it became Galleria di Base del Brennero – Brenner Basistunnel BBT SE.
Austria and Italy are equal shareholders in BBT SE.
In Austria, ÖBB (Österreichische Bundesbahnen, the Austrian railway company) is the only shareholder with 50 % of the company's shares. Until Phase III began on April 18th, Tyrol was also a shareholder.
The holding company TFB (Tunnel Ferroviario del Brennero Holding AG) holds 50 % of the company's shares for Italy. TFB is owned in turn by RFI (Rete Ferroviaria Italiana) which holds 89.857 % of the shares, the Autonomous Provinces of Bolzano holds 6.377 %, the Autonomous Province of Trento holds 3.446 % and the Province of Verona holds 0.320 % of the company shares.
The Brenner Base Tunnel is co-financed by the European Union.